Apis Cor is building a new production 3D printer.
The Florida-based company is in the 3DCP business, using their technology to print buildings in concrete in a series of projects across the world. They’re one of the relatively few companies producing their own 3DCP printers.
In a post on LinkedIn, company CTO Nikita Chen-iun-tai wrote:
“A Small Production Update from Apis Cor. We are excited to share that we’re finally building the production version of our 3D printer — without compromises.”
Images of parts for this production machine were shared, although it seems they haven’t put one together yet. But what exactly is different about the new and apparently unnamed 3DCP printer?
In the post, Chen-iun-tai said the new machine will be 3X faster, and “durability significantly increased”. Finally, he said that the duty cycle will be boosted to 80-90%, adding “the performance will surprise you.”
This is a good move by Apis Cor, as the 3DCP market is still quite small and basically wide open for competitors at this point. This is quite different than, say, the FFF desktop 3D printer market that is saturated and now dominated by a few very large companies. It’s no longer possible to enter that market unless you have a nine-digit investment to get you started.
In contrast, the 3DCP market is quite open, and there are massive growth possibilities.
Consider this: how many construction companies exist worldwide? An enormous number. How many of them are using 3DCP technology? A very slim percentage. There are plenty of customers.
The race at the moment is to develop 3DCP technology to the point where it can handle a sufficiently wide range of projects that a typical construction company would choose to use it. Today there are a number of constraints on the technology that have yet to be overcome.
However, seeing that Apis Cor is working on a new 3D printer, and also that some of their key competitors are doing the same, it’s clear that progress is being made. This is exactly what we want to see: competition leading to technology breakthroughs, which in turn will attract more customers.
3DCP is still very early in its lifecycle, but we can see steps being made towards the future.
Via LinkedIn
