The ProJet 1200 - Only $4900 - Extremely High Quality

This is something I think a lot of people in the 3d printing industry have missed. 3D Systems recently (March 24) began shipping their latest ProJet 3D printer. The ProJet 1200, which is a Micro-SLA 3D Printer. It can only print very small objects, with a minimal build size of (1.69 x 1.06 x 7.086 in). However, it prints almost as good as some of the large 3D Systems ProJet printers that sell for a lot more money. 3D Systems seems to be targeting at home users, who would put something like this in their workshop, or garage, and small business owners.

The printer prints with a layer thickness of 30 microns (0.03mm), and a 585 dpi print resolution. It uses LED DLP technology for the great resolution. They advertise that it is great for printing jewelry, dental restorations, models and more. It also prints a lot faster than the typical fdm printers out there today (14 mm/hour vertical)

The printer is very small (about the size of a coffee maker) - 8 inches X 8 inches X 13 inches high.

I believe this is the future. If this printer is only $4,900 now, I'm guessing that in 5 years from now we could get the same thing for $1500 or so (less than most FDM printers today).

Here are some videos showing what it can do. Definitely worth watching.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FALWcr_bn4E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBI2PSkKkk0#t=13

I'm so tempted to get one of these. If the build size was larger I would definitely get it.

This is where I see 3d printing headed in the home. SLA based jetting printers will become cheap and readily available to hobbyists. This is awesome technology which should prove to catch on in the next couple of years as prices decline. This is why I like 3D Systems' stock so much. I feel they have a lead on this technology by quite a bit.

Wow, how did I miss this? Now just make the build size 3 times the size, and lower the price to $3,000 and I think these things will sell like hotcakes. It's only a matter of time. Once this happens, FDM printers will become an after thought.

Until they can build in "real" material, SLA will always be just for modeling and not for making things that can do something difficult in the real world. I love the resolution you can get with SLA, but the materials technology may never get there. When those SLS patents expire this year, THAT's when we'll start to see some really useful machines become affordable. I can't wait to print in stainless steel and iconel!

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Originally Posted by American 3D Printing

Until they can build in "real" material, SLA will always be just for modeling and not for making things that can do something difficult in the real world. I love the resolution you can get with SLA, but the materials technology may never get there. When those SLS patents expire this year, THAT's when we'll start to see some really useful machines become affordable. I can't wait to print in stainless steel and iconel!

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Ye this might be usefull for a store like your's if you can get 20k or something for a printer, So you can offer a service to your customers to get a STL file and you print it,
But i doubt SLS would ever come to the consumer as its simple to expensive as parts go even if its opensource, Perhaps there could come some more affordable designs, But still i doubt it will go under the 20k very soon.
But yet again it might be a nice thing for stores, Like we used to have paper print shops, we still have em but not as many anymore, But its the same thing.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by American 3D Printing

Until they can build in "real" material, SLA will always be just for modeling and not for making things that can do something difficult in the real world. I love the resolution you can get with SLA, but the materials technology may never get there.

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What is "real material"? Stratasys has an interesting array of stuff you can print with on their Polyjet printers.

The Projet 1200 uses one material, Visijet FTX Green. Marketed to jewelers and dentists as a castable resin. The prints from this machine are great but casting is a pain. You need to be set up for platinum casting or familiar with phosphate-bonded investments because that's the only thing that works. Or make rubber molds from the prints, which I'm doing now. I'm currently looking for alternative compatible resins I can use in my Projet. I'm wondering if the B9 Resin would work in my Projet???? Wishful thinking???

It should be said that 3D Systems was no help whatsoever. As it turns out, they had no idea how to cast this material and decided to go ahead and ship the printers and let the early adopters figure it out. After much trial and error, and some outside help from other early adopters, we figured it out and 3D Systems is writing a manual that will come with the printer from now on telling you what to buy and how to do it. But my experiences with 3D Systems have not been stellar I'm sorry to say. The technician that came to install the printer knew how to plug it in and that's about it. He had never even seen the software that accompanies it. It was similar to my CAD software so it wasn't hard to figure out and I ended up training him on his damn software! The saleswoman was very nice but was completely unfamiliar with the printer, could not answer any questions; in fact I'm not sure she had seen the printer in person. Very unprofessional.