Almost a year after it debuted its M1 3D printer at the Additive Manufacturing User Group Conference, Carbon is returning to AMUG with a new pair of machine solutions and vision for manufacturing.
It’s called SpeedCell, a new system of securely connected devices designed for the manufacture of production quality parts and features two new products, The M2 3D printer and Smart Part Washer.
The M2 is the second machine based on Continuous Liquid Interface Production (CLIP), Carbon’s breakthrough fast 3D printing technology that uses programmable, production quality resins. With a build chamber of 190mm x 118mm x 326mm, the machine offers twice the build volume of its predecessor for the manufacturer of larger parts or more parts per build with the same high resolution. It also includes manufacturing-ready features such as locked printing parameters for validation and the option to serialise parts for traceability.
The Smart Part Washer, designed for easy cleaning and easy part finishing, has two primary benefits. First, it addresses the industry-wide pain of post processing as a solvent-based rinsing device that removes excess resin whilst eliminating labour. The second benefit is connectivity. The Washer is connected to the printer via NFC communication readers so that as parts move through either machines, there is a traceable digital thread that captures all of the data associated with the build or wash cycle.
SpeedCell also features multiple Carbon Connectors, which enable hardware extensibility to support additional system capabilities in the future. As Joseph DeSimone, co-founder and CEO of Carbon explains, it’s “everything you would expect from a Silicon Valley company focussed on manufacturing.”
Explaining the system further, Joseph said: “SpeedCell combines our reliable M Series machines, data-rich platform and ever-expanding base of production-quality resins to give our partners the tools to massively change the way they think about design and production.
“For our customers, this means that their product development cycles no longer need to include the antiquated traditional manufacturing process steps of designing, prototyping, tooling, and then production. Instead, products can be designed and engineered on a platform that is also the means of production, eliminating prototyping and tooling steps. This dis-intermediation is at the core of Carbon’s role in accelerating the much-anticipated digital revolution in manufacturing.”
At launch, SpeedCell will be available in two configurations, Design SpeedCell and Production SpeedCell. Design couples one M Series printer with a Smart Part Washer to allow designers and engineers to iterate concepts that can be turned into real parts, whilst Production is designed for industrial manufacturing applications with multiple M2 printers and a Smart Part Washer. Both machines will follow Carbon's unique subscription based pricing model, with the M2 available at $50,000/year and the Smart Part Washer at $10,000/year.
With several high-profile partners already using CLIP including BMW and General Electric, SpeedCell is in direct response to the needs of those customers and strategic partners, including new customer and launch partner, Fast Radius, which is adopting SpeedCell in partnership with UPS.
Rick Smith, co- founder at Fast Radius commented, “Fast Radius and UPS believe that the introduction of Carbon’s technologies marks a historic point when additive manufacturing truly becomes a production alternative. We are excited to be a SpeedCell launch partner and to integrate the technology into our product design, additive manufacturing, and supply chain offerings.”
Joseph added: “The take home for us is this whole realisation that you can stop prototyping, and that dramatically enhances the speed of business. This is a whole new approach and we're focussed on manufacturing and production.”
TCT will be on site at AMUG next week where the machines will be on display for the first time. Follow us on Twitter @TheTCTMagazine for updates.
