Kodak’s Powerful Portrait 3D Printer

By on January 16th, 2018 in printer

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 The Kodak Portrait professional desktop 3D printer
The Kodak Portrait professional desktop 3D printer

At CES we were able to get a close look at the new Kodak Portrait professional desktop 3D printer. 

The Portrait 3D Printer, which is made by Argentina-based Smart International under the Kodak brand, is definitely not a consumer-style 3D printer. This machine is very well targeted for professionals seeking high quality prints and good reliability. 

The machine is in fact designed around those principles. 

As you can see in the top image, it’s fully enclosed to prevent dust from entering and capture heat for more consistent 3D printing. 

It’s a dual nozzle machine, enabling the use of alternate support material. While they do offer HIPS as a support material today, it sounds like they are working with their materials supplier to develop a water-soluble material in the very near future. 

The method of dual extrusion is very interesting. Rather than using the standard parallel-mounted hot end approach most other machines employ, the Kodak Portrait instead has a nozzle tilting mechanism shown here. The inactive nozzle is lifted slightly out of the way while the active nozzle deposits material.

 The tilting nozzle system on the Kodak Portrait 3D printer
The tilting nozzle system on the Kodak Portrait 3D printer

This is a critical feature, as the inactive nozzle inevitable gets tangled up with the stray print material and frequently causes print failure on dual nozzle machines. The Kodak Portrait should avoid that issue entirely with the tilting nozzles. 

The machine also includes an out-of-filament detection system, which will pause the print and permit reloading of new material. 

 Inside the Kodak Portrait 3D printer. Note Kodak logo on the hot end
Inside the Kodak Portrait 3D printer. Note Kodak logo on the hot end

Otherwise the Portrait employs a full E3D extrusion system, meaning you can take full advantage of the E3D ecosystem to exchange nozzles, for example. 

Electronics are interesting on this machine. Rather than using an Arduino board that most machines use, they have a powerful 32-bit Smoothie board that should provide for rapid printing. 

For the fancy touch screen interface, they’ve embedded a Raspberry Pi. But they do not run Octoprint; instead they’ve developed their own system that should be more easily learned by new users. 

 Fancy color touchscreen panel view on the Kodak desktop 3D printer
Fancy color touchscreen panel view on the Kodak desktop 3D printer

The Kodak Portrait 3D printer also includes a webcam and software to integrate remote operations through a standard web browser. They even have a method of providing for “personal profiles” that should make this machine very attractive to higher level educational institutions and business workgroups. 

Prints made on the machine appeared to be of very good quality, regardless of the material used. It can produce items that fit in its 200 x 200 x 250mm build envelope.

 Some of the many materials available for 3D printing on the Kodak Portrait 3D printer
Some of the many materials available for 3D printing on the Kodak Portrait 3D printer

Kodak’s material availability is very good, with multiple thermoplastics available from them. They do permit the use of third party materials, but of course recommend using their own carefully crafted materials for best results. 

 Many of the Kodak 3D printing materials are available in these brilliant colors 
Many of the Kodak 3D printing materials are available in these brilliant colors 

The spooling system is interesting. Their materials are shipped in sealed containers as shown here. 

 The Kodak 3D printer material packaging system
The Kodak 3D printer material packaging system

To deploy them, you insert the spool into another sealed container, which mounts on the back of the unit, or can be standing beside the machine. Inside the sealed unit is a pocket where you can place drying agents, thus ensuring your materials are always appropriately dry: sealed sales container directly to sealed spool mount. 

 The sealed spool holder on the Kodak Portrait desktop 3D printer
The sealed spool holder on the Kodak Portrait desktop 3D printer

The Kodak Portrait 3D printer is quite impressive, and should be a good option for professionals. It’s shipping in March at a price of USD$2,799. 

Via Smart International

By Kerry Stevenson

Kerry Stevenson, aka "General Fabb" has written over 8,000 stories on 3D printing at Fabbaloo since he launched the venture in 2007, with an intention to promote and grow the incredible technology of 3D printing across the world. So far, it seems to be working!