New Matter updates

[NewMatter]

Just wanted to clear a couple of things up:

- Metallic PLA would be really cool, but sadly, the metallic bunny was spray-painted.
- The photo of MOD-t parts are actually parts for the "look-like, feel-like" prototypes in our Pasadena lab.

We do, though, hope to have stacks of actually factory parts before too long!

[Feign]

Thanks for clearing those points up (I've gone ahead and edited my previous post to correct my error.)

I should probably take a moment to reiterate that I am not in any way associated with New Matter, I'm just a very enthusiastic backer who is eager to pass along what news I can find. (perhaps over eager since I clearly got a few bits wrong...)

[Feign]

Well, this update is pretty light on technical goodies, the Idea Lab crew is hosting a "Tech Crawl and Mixer" where New Matter is showing off some iterations of the printer and some prints from it. Interesting, but unless you're near Pasadena, Ca. it's not really realistic to attend.

The technical update portion is short enough to quote:

Speaking of our printers, we'll give you a quick prototype update -- one is happily executing g-code as we speak, another is waiting to be prepped for a print and two more are just about to exit our lab.

So I'm going to assume that's referring to those two parts kits we saw last week, they didn't specifically say this was the "looks-like works-like prototype" but it seems safe to assume by this point, since it was working in previous updates. It'll be good to have multiple prototypes for testing (though having several of the "looks-like works-like" printers sure can't hurt for marketing when going around to events and such.)

[curious aardvark]

Just wanted to clear a couple of things up:

- Metallic PLA would be really cool, but sadly, the metallic bunny was spray-painted.
- The photo of MOD-t parts are actually parts for the "look-like, feel-like" prototypes in our Pasadena lab.

We do, though, hope to have stacks of actually factory parts before too long!

Damn, guess I'd better stop looking for that silver pla then :-)

[Feign]

Happy Halloween, and sorry it took me till now to post this up. In my defense, the update itself was a little bit late too. Mostly it talks about their attending the Inside 3D Printing Conference in Santa Clara, California. Just enough to make me wish I was able to go there, but not enough to really go over what was presented there. I wouldn't mind hearing more about this conference if there's anyone here that attended.

On to news about the printer itself, though:

Since assembling the first “looks like, works like” model we showed you earlier, we’ve been running it through a series of rigorous tests. Our priority right now is to optimize performance and assemble more units. We’ll have more info for you next week, but we’ve been able to do some exciting things on the optimization front. Stay tuned!

I'm wondering if this optimization is on the software or hardware end. Other than that, this week is summed up with "It's all still going according to plan." Which is good, if not particularly exciting, news.

[Feign]

I am really sorry about missing last week's update, and when the previous one even hinted at it being an update with some actual news on the printer itself at that.

As promised, we have some exciting news on the optimization front. While we still recommend printing at a 200 micron thickness, we have been testing printing at 130 micron thicknesses with reliable success! Here’s a picture of a block printed at 130 microns:


130 microns! So smooth!

Okay, so it's not a huge update on the technical front, though it's interesting to see that the hardware can technically go down to finer resolutions than promised. So often these projects go in the other direction.

[curious aardvark]

cool :-)
Some padding because 'cool' as a comment is apparently too short - who knew ?

[Feign]

Hey, I'm actually prompt with an update for once! Though this one doesn't have any technical news, it does have a good bit of news for the project as a whole:

We’re thrilled to say that CES, the largest consumer electronics trade show in the world agrees! Today it was announced that the MOD-t was selected as a 2015 CES Innovation Honoree! For those of you who many not know, this is an incredible award to receive because only a select few products get chosen for this prestigious designation.

Check it out on the CES website (select "3D Printing" from the dropdown menu)

Very neat indeed.

(apparently, they'll be receiving their actual trophy "soon". Somehow this just seems fitting for a crowdfunded project. )

[Feign]

All right, just to make things easy this cold, cold morning, I'm just going to directly quote the tech update portion of last night's update email.

On the production side, the last few weeks have been focused on finalizing the production design based on testing and feedback on the “looks-like, works-like” model. Unfortunately, that’s not very exciting as it involves a lot of small tweaks, optimizations, and tuning. The great news is that all of that work has resulted in finalizing production design and being ready to create molds and tooling! For non-technical folks, this is a big step in getting the MOD-t to you. These molds can weight in excess of 1000 pounds each, so it was important to take the time to get it right the first time. After they’re made (which takes a while), we can start creating MOD-t’s that are ready to send to you! Thanks for sticking with us! We promise it will be worth it.

I don't think "not very exciting" is the way to put it (at least I know I sure like news about each little tweak, but perhaps I'm a bit odd)... I mean this is big. Final production design is a go!

And according to their IGG schedule, making the tooling for the final design was planned for November, so they're very close to being on-schedule.

[Feign]

Sorry I missed last week's update... It was a "Happy Thanksgiving" mailer. Cute but not entirely substantive.


For substance, though this one makes up for that.

Now witness the firepower of this fully ARMED and OPERATIONAL MOD-t prototype!

We have multiple pre-production prototype printers operational and we’ve been busily building lots of parts. In a series of test prints, we continue to successfully print below our promised layer thickness of 200 microns (aw yeah!!!). Life testing of critical components will start soon!

Should be interesting to see how these production versions of the racks and pinions stand up to wear testing.