[andrewmb]

The website is pretty and the copy is tight, but it's nothing pathbreaking in terms of fundamental principles.

This is just bottom-up UV-DLP SLA with a new twist: taking fuller advantage of oxygen permeable materials for the vat to eliminate the recoating step and get to continuous printing. A similar idea was tried, the ill-fated Solidator used a pressurized vat bottom with a permeable membrane. Though from what I know Solidator was not counting on the oxygen inhibition in the same manner as Carbon3d. Solidator's problems were not related to the inhibition technology, just the standard hardware issues faced by many on KS. Other companies have similar technologies as Carbon3D in production or soon to reach the market. But a very talented team and quite the splash of a product launch.

[darkmighty]

The speed and smooth ascension are actually game changers imo.

[andrewmb]

Agreed. I have a more or less exact idea of what they're doing just from the concept description as I design resin-type 3D printers at my day job. I know this concept has been tried, I think they're just the first ones to have gotten it to work.

The other thing to note is that this only works with a certain subset of polymerization reactions--not all polymerizations are oxygen inhibited so if they want to move into truly water-clear and UV stable materials this design won't work.

[darkmighty]

I really love the approach take by the Peachy Printer [1] guys. I wonder why more people aren't exploring that route (dripping system, or any water-assisted system)? It shares many of the strengths of this one but got far less attention.

I wonder how it would perform with a controllable dipping system and a DLP.

[1] http://www.peachyprinter.com/#!methods/cjg9

[phkahler]

>> A similar idea was tried, the ill-fated Solidator used a pressurized vat bottom with a permeable membrane.

Sounds like prior art. Details matter of course.