A new jeweller friendly 3D printer announced mid May 2012.

engineering.com's announcement for it says its priced around $14,999 USD.

whilst this is more than what some can afford it definitely has features that somewhat make up for the price difference between it and the cheaper printers.

see spec sheet

Datasheet_machine68.pdf

as you can see it prints in a number of different materials for specific applications within our industry (direct investment casting or mould making)

some of these materials in particular the HTM140 material allow for super fast high res printing (full tray of ladies engagement rings set at 50micron res IN UNDER 50 MINUTES!)

it requires no calibration

the build plate is at least 25% bigger than the cheaper printers

it is made by a company with a track record in 3D printer production and technology and importantly for us, is used by big jewellery company names like BVLGARI and CARTIER.

they are going to be at the JCK Las Vegas expo - if anyone is in the area please check them out and report back!!

I am more than happy to be the guinea pig - once received I am happy to post up detailed review of this contraption for all my RG buddies to see!

any thoughts ladies and gents?

Tags: 3D, PRINTER

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Permalink Reply by pat schmidt on July 21, 2012 at 3:31pm

not sure what they're talking about ..the resin expands more?,,,, when casting you melt and burnout the wax so how is it expanding

Soub Allen said:

First a big thank you for all the posts! It is very helpful for me.
The envisontec seller here in Europe told me to cast could be a problem with bigger models because the resin expand more than wax. In some reasons the cast house need a stronger ceramic

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Permalink Reply by khayreyah amani wahaab on July 21, 2012 at 4:05pm

i think they are talking about the thermal expansion that can occur with some substances just at the point of change from solid to liquid - so in this case just as it is about to melt and drip out.0 or melt then burn - they want the investment to be rock solid so it doesn't fight back - my casting company had no such issues.

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Permalink Reply by Julian Chatt on July 21, 2012 at 5:07pm

The expansion is only really a problem in industrial casting of large pieces.

A mould of the ceramic shell type used for casting engineering parts is like a surface coating and is usually no more than 8mm to 10mm thick and is liable to failure if the resin expands before it has softened enough to flow out of the mould.

The moulds we use for jewellery embed the wax or resin models in a comparatively huge volume of investment which is more than capable of standing up to the force from the expanding resin.

Another example of a fact from one industry being wrongly assumed to be relevant in another.

I'm still finding ABS is casting 100%, with or without a thin wax coating. Certainly no problems with moulds cracking as I had been warned would happen every time ?

I cast a 116 g Silver hollow skull, roughly 2" x 2.5" x 2.5" in a 3" diameter, 3" length flask 2 days ago with 100% perfect result. That's about as big as I'd ever want to go in a flask that size.

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Permalink Reply by khayreyah amani wahaab on July 22, 2012 at 3:01am

thanks for that Julian, that makes sense. and good to see your abs casting is still turning out well!

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Permalink Reply by pat schmidt on July 23, 2012 at 5:31pm

there is a guy on the asiga forum that posted some finished prints they look good!......asiga is offering printing samples but you have to be a forum member

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Permalink Reply by Julian Chatt on July 23, 2012 at 6:02pm

I received my Asiga samples last week. They are o.k. Not as good as the bigger and better EnVisiontec machines but they cost 5 or 6 times as much to buy.

The Asiga samples look very similar to Khayreyah's prints from the new EnVisiontec machine which is so similar to the Asiga that I'm sure they have a tie up somewhere in their development.