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by tdudhhu 812 days ago
This almost sounds like what Carbon [1] is doing with their 'normal' resin printers. They project images through the bottom of a vat filled with resin. But a special membrane creates a small 'dead zone' where the resin does not cure. This makes continuous printing possible at an almost infinite z / height resolution. I believe they also use this for chemical properties because the small interface is full of oxygen.

[1] https://www.carbon3d.com/
2 comments
samch 812 days ago
There’s a good reason for this: Joe DeSimone founded Carbon3D as well. He’s at the forefront in this field.
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araes 812 days ago
From my own perspective, the interesting part of the carbon3D thing was that apparently the real money was in dental and orthodontics - an area a lot of venture and 3D printing probably does not delve into all that often.

Admittedly, there's apparently an industry I had never looked at that's actually kind of interesting, with metal and resin printed dentures. [1]

Such as, the first company on that list, which I never read about on Tom's or Ars or other 3D printing sites, Zortrax [2], apparently makes a semi-cheap printer that does bioresin (can you get that for home use? RepRap bioresin spools?) for $2k. $2k seems cheap compared to the carbon3D ones, they're apparently $50k-100k. Could reasonably print my own dentures for $2k.

[1] https://all3dp.com/1/dental-3d-printing-a-guide-for-professi...

[2] https://zortrax.com/applications/digital-dentistry/

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tdudhhu 812 days ago
"which I never read about on Tom's or Ars"

Aren't those consumer websites?

The 3D printing industry is over 50 years old. And I believe metal printing has the biggest market. But those printers are super expensive. Not something an avarage consumer is going to buy.

By the way: I don't think you can buy a Carbon printer. You need a service contract so you can lease them.

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araes 811 days ago
Yeah, consumer websites, although already pretty far out in "consumer". Out of 8B humans, not sure how many read Tom's.

I might buy a $2000 printer. That's at least in the range I might think about. People buy those $1000 engravers. There's a whole market just around selling the wood supplies, designs, and final products [1] from them. Especially when you can turn your $1000 purchase into a engraving hustle business.

[1] https://www.etsy.com/market/glowforge_wood?explicit=1&ref=gu...

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