The latest creation of Davide Marin, Lumi Industries’ CEO is PicoFab,a ultracompact 3D printer, which can perfectly fit your laboratory desk
PicoFab is born from the growing need to have a small and fast resin 3D printer to build functional parts with an exceptional detail, at a very low price. This has been possible thanks to a compact light engine that we developed. The PicoFAB is an exceptional tool for:
laboratories that want to test highly expensive resin, since 15-20 ml are enough for one print;
producing crowns and bridges with dental resins;
producing prototypes of parts for jewelry, like rings, earrings, cufflinks;
precision mechanical parts for watches, compact systems;
nozzles, heatsinks and other parts in ceramic resin;
producing miniatures with height up to 50mm in hard resin, that can be easily painted;
And much more!
The PicoFAB 3D has a printing volume of 24x24mm, 50mm height, 100um horizontal resolution and 25-50um Z resolution thanks to a micro linear system we designed. The outer design of the PicoFAB is still under development, with light shielding and air filtering available as an optional accessory. The printing area is compact, so clearly the PicoFAB is not suitable for big parts or batch productions. However it is just perfect to create small samples of final parts, without the need keep on hold a bigger more expensive printer. It is has a very high detail, while its price is incredibly affordable!
Using the PicoFAB is very simple: we provide a profile for the PicoFAB for Chitubox, a software for preparing a 3D model for 3D printing. The sliced file is then transferred from the PC to the PicoFAB, which is a stand-alone machine.
The PicoFAB works with all 405nm commercial resins and curing time per layer can be as low a 3s for a 50um layer. An experimental version for 385nm resins is also being tested.
Dental applications
The PicoFAB is suitable for 3D printing crowns and small bridges up to 4 elements. Using this 3D printer for small jobs allows the user to use expensive mills / 3D Printers for more complex jobs maximizing the efficiency of them.
Jewellery
& Miniature Applications
The PicoFab, is extremely handy to build samples of rings, earrings small pendants. With reduced use of building material, it can be used to create personalized 3D models with castable resins, for metal casting.
Precision mechanics applications
Thanks to the linear system we applied, The PicoFab can reach a great level of detail allowing the creation of small mechanical components for prototyping.
3D printing with resin, necessarily need post-processing of the 3D model, cleaning it perfectly from liquid resin residues. For this reason we designed PicoCLEAN.
A 2-stage cleaning solution for pre cleaning and cleaning the parts. It features removable liquid cleaning containers, magnetic stirring with RPM measurement useful for delicate 3D printed parts, programmable modes, at same cost of the PicoFAB.
PicoCURE is the last element of the family and post-cures the 3D printed parts with specific UV leds and a rotating base. User can set the post curing times and modes.
The PicoFAB will be available within a month on a Kickstarter campaign, both as a kit and an assembled product, together with the PicoCLEAN and PicoCURE, and a wide range of materials, including dental resins, castable resins, resins for functional parts and for models, and cleaning liquids.
More details, including the release date, can be found on the Facebook page of the PicoFAB 3D printer https://www.facebook.com/picoFAB