Building World’s 1st Open
Platform 3D Printers
T
oday, almost every
organization understands the
opportunities of 3D Printing
and the advantages for their business.
Likewise, the declining costs for
hardware and consumables have
enabled small and medium sized
businesses to utilize all benefits of
additive manufacturing. The quick
development of new materials which
resulted in 3D printed objects with
high mechanical and thermal strength
opens an extensive range of new
applications from functional prototypes
to small series of end products.
As an outcome of that, the level of
knowledge of additive manufacturing
is rising in the organizations so are the
expectations for the procedure itself.
Engineers want to have a full control
of the 3D printing process as opposed
to having an algorithm performing
their job and ascertaining ideal
software parameters. Also, they hope
to have the full adaptability with
regards to the decision of what material
can be utilized for their applications.
This aligns perfectly with the “Open
Platform” philosophy of German
RepRap that makes the world's first
industrial quality, open platform 3D
Printers capable of printing all
42
materials on huge build platforms.
Based in Feldkirchen near Munich,
German RepRap was originally
founded as a German RepRap
Foundation (GRRF). Since then, the
company has been developing and
distributing 3D printers based on FFF
(Fused Filament Fabrication)
technology, as well as filaments,
software, and accessories. German
RepRap is also the first company in
Germany to offer the X1000, a large
volume 3D printer for industrial
requirements.
An Engineer’s First Choice
The product line increases steadily and
consists of 3D printers for professional
users in product development,
automobile, aerospace, prototyping,
mold and model-making, architecture,
design and much more. German
RepRap’s customer base comprises
leading industry companies, designers,
architects, artists, model makers,
universities, and schools.
German RepRap is the first preference
of engineer’s that offers full control
over the 3D printing service and has
the flexibility of using any material that
the printer can technically process. The
latest machine of the x-series is the
German RepRap X500 with new
features like auto bed leveling, a
heated building chamber, filament feed
control, brand new DD4 extruder
technology and much more.
Besides the X-series, German RepRap
has just announced a new, innovative
3D printing technology called Liquid
Additive Manufacturing. Extremely
complex geometries that can’t be
manufactured with the conventional
molding techniques can now be 3D
printed for the very first time, as well
as small or medium size batches,
where the costs of tools and casts do
not allow an economic process.
A Passionate Leader in 3D Printing
Florian Bautz, Managing Director,
German RepRap has always been
passionate about 3D printing. He took
part in the Open Source RepRap
project (self-replicating, rapid
prototype), which led to an extensive
spread of the FFF technology for the
very first time. He started with an
online shop of spare parts for RepRap
printers as a lot of those components
had to be imported to Germany back in
2010.
His plan took off as within the first 24
hours of the online presence; his online
shop was sold out. He then realized a
| August 2017 |