Readybox: The Fastest Consumer 3D Printer, Ever
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Brett Potter is a junior aerospace engineering major (‘16) at the University of Maryland. He joined Startup Shell last December as part of our Gamma Dos Batch, and he is now the Facilities Director for the Shell. He loves to play basketball and draw, but he spends most of his time building stuff in the Rapid Prototyping Lab next to the Shell. He shares a role as Lab Manager with a few other Shell students. Right now, he’s working on a 3D printer venture called Readybox.
MB: Hey Brett, what are you working on?
BP: I’m in the process of building the fastest consumer 3D printer on the market. The testing stage is almost completed — the only part left is aesthetic design and branding.
MB: Before we discuss more details, we should clarify some things for the audience. First, what are the different types of 3D printers?
BP: Basically, there are two main categories of 3D printers. These categories are broken down by method by which the object is built. The first type is called Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM), which extrudes melted plastic (like you would frost a cake). The second category of printer uses lasers to melt resin or powder in place. These printers are often referred to as “resin-based” or “stereolithographic” 3D printers.
MB: Second, what is the market like for 3D printers? I know it’s very competitive.
BP: Yeah, there are a lot of 3D printers on the market, but they’re all centered around ease of use and resolution. I’m trying to focus on what very few companies are focusing on, and that’s speed.
For the ease of use side, Makerbot has that part of the market cornered. Their user interface is one of their strong points, and they claim that there aren’t many errors in their 3D printers.
As for resolution — which means the layer height of the object and how detailed the 3D prints are — that’s mainly dominated by resin-based 3D printers like the Form 1. The Form 1 is the main consumer-grade resin-based printer on the market. The resolution on my printer can get down to 25 microns, which matches the best that the Form 1 can do. On professional-grade resin-based printers, the resolution can get down to something like 1 micron, but those costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. To give you a comparison, FDM printers typically have a maximum resolution of 100 microns.
My closest competition is Ultimaker, which currently has a printer on the market with an absolute maximum speed of 250 millimeters per second. I haven’t heard anything else about speed with them.
MB: How fast is fast for Readybox?
BP: To best understand how fast Readybox is, let’s give some background on what’s out there now. Current consumer-grade 3D printers generally have a maximum speed of 100 millimeters per second. For example, a Makerbot printer can print a 4-inch cube in about 10 hours. I’ve modified these 3D printers to go faster, but they still reach limits around 150–200 millimeters per second.
To give the comparison, when my printer is not extruding material, it can go 700 millimeters per second. When it is extruding material (i.e. normally printing), it can go 350 millimeters per second. For that 4-inch cube, it took my printer 4 hours to print.
MB: Out of all of the factors you mentioned — ease of use, resolution quality, speed — why focus on speed?
BP: My target audience is the education community. I hope to see this printer in middle and high schools. In order for that to be useful for them, it has to be able to print out a full object, such as a 6-inch tall action figure, in a class period. This can’t be done with current 3D printers on the market.
See more of Readybox and other Shell startups at our inaugural Demo Day on December 5, 2014 at Startup Shell. To contribute to the progress of Brett and other UMD student entrepreneurs, donate to the Shell’s crowdfunding campaign on Launch UMD. We’re looking to reach our two stretch goals by December 13, 2014!
