Startup company Lightmake proposes a new form of waste-free FFF 3D printing.
The buzz lately is all about waste-free 3D printing, since operators are rapidly discovering that filament swapping systems waste a staggering amount of material when purging colors, sometimes raising the material cost of 3D prints by 10X or more.
Several 3D printer manufacturers have come out with solutions to the problem, such as Bambu Lab’s Vortek, Creality’s new KliTek, Snapmaker’s U1, Prusa’s INDX, etc. All of these are some form of tool swapper, be it just the hot end or the entire extruder. In all cases, only one toolhead is active at a time, however.
That is quite different from Lightmake’s proposed solution. They have shown a four-toolhead system in which all toolheads are simultaneously active.
In concept, this takes the waste-free idea to an even higher level: changing colors takes literally no time at all: just move the desired toolhead that’s already in the build volume. The company said a swap takes only one second, but that’s just the time required to move the toolhead. In reality, their L4 system is actually four simultaneous colors.
The L4 mounts these four on the top sides of the build chamber, with two on each linear rail. They can operate independently — printing four objects at once — or coordinated, each contributing their colour to a single multicolour model.
That is something that none of the other players can do.
Aside from the fascinating four-toolhead system, the L4 also has some interesting specifications. According to a report on Yanko Design:
- Build volume of 354 x 350 x 386 mm
- Hot end temperature of 320C
- Support for PLA, ABS, PETG, TPU, ASA, PVA, PET, and xCF
- Closed-loop motion system
- Dual HD cameras
- Color touchscreen
- RFID spool detection
- Farm management software
If all this is true, then the L4 could be a game-changing machine in the desktop FFF world.
Why? Watch this short video of the L4 in action:
The machine printed four #3DBenchys at the same time. They don’t say how long this job took, but your benchy throughput is that duration divided by four: it’s like having FOUR machines on the desktop.
Of all the multicolor waste-free solutions seen so far, this could be the most powerful and reliable.
However, there is a big question: who exactly is Lightmake? They say basically nothing about themselves on their website, and searches turn up little. Some digging revealed that they are very likely a Hong Kong-based startup, but beyond that, we know not very much.
We also don’t know the price of the machine, which is set to launch on Kickstarter at some unknown point in the future. At this time, you can only sign up for updates.
Kickstarter 3D printers from unknown companies always pose some level of risk. It would be advisable for Lightmake to provide some additional background to make buyers more comfortable when considering an L4 purchase. Nevertheless, as of this writing, it seems that around 1500 have signed up for updates. That’s not the number of sales, but it does show interest.
And there should be: this is a very unique and powerful multicolor 3D printer concept that deserves a good look.
Via Lightmake and Yanko Design
