This is PAM - Pollen AM's multi-material 'luxury' 3D printer

A new desktop multi-material 3D printer has landed on the market bringing with it what claims to be the broadest range of materials available in its class – introducing, PAM.

Born from a team of 11 engineers and PhD graduates at Parisian company, Pollen AM, PAM is a product of five years of R&D designed to address the luxury market of designers, artists and creators. 

The machine itself looks very smart, housed in wood casing that’s simple and sleek but aesthetics aside one of the biggest differences is that it’s traded conventional filament spools for tubes of raw industrial-grade material pellets. This includes environmentally friendly silicones, PLA, filled materials, carbon, natural fibres and more in a wide range of colours and properties and Pollen is even offering custom materials for specific requests. 

PAM isn’t the first printer to use pellets, Sculptify’s David printer, which launched on Kickstarter in 2014 proposed to do away with expensive filament in favour of cheap material pallets, though little has been seen of the machine since then. Perhaps PAM stands a good chance of coming in and leading the way with this material approach.

Up to four materials can be used in tandem and users can mix two materials on the fly to create objects with different properties – think wearables where elasticity and rigidity could be required in different parts of the same product. According to Pollen, such prints require no post-processing. 

It’s also fast, printing at 400mm per second (six times faster than other sub €10,000 machines) at a resolution up to 40 μ with a print volume of 21 cm x 21 cm x 21 cm. 

Cédric Michel, CEO and co-founder of Pollen AM, commented: "Existing additive manufacturing solutions are complex, expensive and don't offer a really satisfying result. In addition, they are limited to producing prototypes and not pieces with immediately commercial properties and appearance. Our – patented – production process overcomes these limitations: for the first time, it is possible to manufacture perfectly functional products on demand, locally and effortlessly."

Though desktop in size PAM is on the more mature side of the spectrum with an RRP that proves it’s for more serious creative types that makers. The machine is available to pre-order now for the introductory price of €8,000 but that’s set to double in 2017, so if you want one, order fast. However with a sub €10,000 price tag, it's being introduced at a much more accessible price point for small businesses and individuals than other industrial multi-material 3D printers currently on the market.