Upgrades Announced for Compact, High-Resolution SLA Bean 3D Printer

California startup Kudo3D Inc., founded in 2013 by Dr. Tedd Syao, has a history of manufacturing affordable, professional, high-resolution SLA 3D printers, starting with the lightning fast, DLP-SLA Titan 1 3D printer in 2014, and followed up two years later with the Titan 2, both of which are widely used for multiple applications at academic institutions and companies around the world. Both of these 3D printers, and its famous Bean, use Kudo3D’s patented Passive Self-Peeling (PSP) technology. Speaking of the Bean 3D, Kudo3D has been busy developing several new upgrades for its newest 3D printer.

Another thing Kudo3D is good at is holding successful crowdfunding campaigns for its 3D printers – the Titan 1 raised about $690,000 during its Kickstarter, and this summer’s Kickstarter campaign for the Bean 3D printer hit its initial $50,000 funding goal in just two minutes; it had reached over 800% of that goal in two weeks.

The desktop Bean is an LCD-based SLA 3D printer, meaning that instead of using a laser or DLP to project 3D model patterns, it uses a high-resolution 2K LCD panel, paired with a purple 405nm LED lamp; it’s also inexpensive and eco-friendly to boot, and the company will soon offer castable resins for the Bean, just like it did for the Titan 1. The compact Bean comes with a spring-loaded, self-leveling build platform, and is pre-calibrated before being shipped out to customers.

While the extremely successful Kickstarter campaign for the Bean 3D printer wrapped up this summer, it is still available for purchase through an Indiegogo campaign. Up until now, the company has raised over $840,000 on both of the crowdfunding platforms for the Bean, which was originally called the Green Bean in reference to its color and eco-friendliness.

“Throughout the campaign, we want to demonstrate that LCD based SLA is a more advanced technology for 3D printing in terms of both resolution and cost,” Kudo3D wrote in the Indiegogo campaign.

The Bean 3D printer was created with consumers in mind, which is why it offers both high print quality and a compact, stylish look for an affordable cost. This is achieved by combining Kudo3D’s proprietary PSP technology with an ultra-high-resolution LCD panel. But if you were already impressed, wait for it – the high performance Bean just got even better.

[Image: Vincent3D]

“To ensure the highest quality, Kudo3D has been upgrading its original Bean prototype and refining the engineering design,” Dr. Syao told 3DPrint.com.

The Bean already has an impressively high resolution of 47um, and one of the new upgrades Kudo3D has released is a power boost, taking it up from 40W to 60W. It boasts a print speed of 10 to 20 mm an hour, depending on how big the model is, and, when compared to other DLP 3D printers, has an “amazingly high resolution” of 50 microns XY, with the capability of a 10 micron layer thickness on the Z axis.

It is truly a compact 3D printer, meant for environments from offices and workshops to studios, and only weighs in at 15 lbs, with a build volume of 68 x 120 x 155 mm and dimensions of 20 x 20 x 40 cm. The Bean’s resin container is a modified version of the container on the Titan 2 – only the Teflon film needs to be replaced.

Additional upgrades to the Bean 3D printer include an integrated lead screw and a Raspberry Pi 3; Kudo3D is also working to develop an integrated software. There are four liquid resin colors available at the moment, and the castable resin will be released before shipping begins in 2018.

You can purchase the Bean 3D Printer Package on Indiegogo for just $449 (not including shipping), which equals a savings of 62% and comes with the 3D printer, 250 g of Green Resin, the Build Platform, PSP Resin Container, and a Starter Kit, which includes the following:

• Gloves
• Funnel
• LAN cable
• Plastic box with cover
• Black rubber scraper
• Wooden handle metal scraper

For an additional $100, the Bean 3D Printer Deluxe Package also includes an extra PSP Resin Container, 250 g of Grey Resin in addition to the Green, a WiFi Repeater, and a Post Curing Lamp.

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