3D printing with Genius Printers

Q: Why do you offer this printer? There are many others already on the market. What makes your set different?

The Genius Printers series uses patent pending technologies that –as we believe- are superior to what the market offers today. Everybody only shows the nice printed parts –and doesn’t tell you how many tries it needed to arrive there. Because 3d printing is difficult. There are many reasons for this simple truth. One is, the filament doesn’t stick to the platform on FDMs, or the object cracks, or the filament shows tiny threads. Or the nozzle is clogged. The temperature might vary, or dozens of other issues spoil your print. Besides that an FDM print will hardly reach SLA quality. But SLA also has its specific problems: The object doesn’t stick to the platform, mirrors get dirty, calibration issues, lasers or other light sources lose power, the vat changes its properties, so the light energy varies –and the print will fail eventually. The Genius Printers Development Team has identified all these problems and found a solution for every possible incident. The list would be too long and too technology oriented, but just to give you an impression: The GP13 is the first printer in the word (afawk) that uses 3 load cells to measure loads before the stepper electronic detects a stall. The vat movement is very special, unknown to the industry so far (patent pending).

A big problem in this industry is to keep the object sticked to the table. Because if you are fighting with microns, you need to have table and vat be flush on a micron level. This is a very hard task for all producers. Genius printers registered a tricky solution: triangulate the table, and even quadrangulate the vat! And what´s more: measure the forces table<>vat at all edges to be sure you apply even pressure. AFAIWK nowbody in this industry ever did such a complex solution. But only this way you can automate the process, being sure that all angles and forces are correct. Allways. So one of the main peeling differences to all other producers is: For the Genius Printers series, the forces define the peeling process, not simple pre-programmed pulling algos, so printing times differ, depending on the printer´s atmospheric conditions, temp, viscosity, object structure per layer, etc. If the load gets too high at the preset pulling rate, the electronic slows down the motors to prevent motor stalls –or disrupted objects! So the Genius printers series is AFAWK the only printer series that can detect and prevent broken structures!

The vat film uses a special material that normally doesn’t need a replacement –even in case it does, that would cost a few dollars, where the competitors demands up to ten times the amount. The speed of the laser beam on the vat is measured. As well as the light power. The light uses very small mirrors and no big 45° mirror like many SLA competitors. Temperature is measured and actively controlled. The GP series offers WLAN/BT and has enough onboard storage capacity for large objects. The Webcam sends its pics to the cloud, from where you can look at the film or near-time pics. All you need is a mobile or a router or a computer with USB connection.

Another reason why we offer this printer series: Quality printers don’t need to cost thousands. If 3D printing is on its way to democratization, then its cost needs to be below 1000$. That´s our believe. And we added the electroplater, because every printed object gets brittle in the sun, changes its color, maybeeven its form. Metal does not. So we integrated the plater into the printing process like nobody has ever done before: the GP printer directly controls the plater, offering PWM routines that are optimized for each object. That makes a big difference: Now you have a metal object, in Chrome or Gold, Copper, shiny, smooth, elegant and long lasting. We are the first company to offer such an integrated concept.

Q: What are the maximal object dimensions for both machines, GP13 and plater?

P13 printer: 12x12x15cm, plater: 13xca 15 cm (conical cylinder).

Q: Resolution?

You can go down to 1/16 step, which will be ca 1.5µm in Z. We recommend 25-100µm. The beam´s spot size can be ca 50µm in diameter, and the x-y movements on electronics go below 2µm, the mechanical glavo properties allow for steps smaller than 5µm.

The plater can do 1µm-100µm layers, depending on the metal.

Q: Speed:?

ca. 5sec/layer, depending on the object´s intricacies. With 100µm layer thickness that would be ca 1h for a 7cm high object.

The plater does ca 10µm in 10 minutes, depending on current, surface area, voltage and metal. The program will give you pretty precise data for each process. Its forces define the peeling process, not pre-programmed pulling algos, so printing times differ, depending on the printer´s atmospheric conditions, temp, viscosity, object structure per layer, etc.

Q: Is the resin dangerous?

Yes. Wear gloves. Every resin is considered dangerous stuff. Wear safety glasses, a droplet of resin into the eye needs careful spilling. Don’t waste liquid resin. Pour it into a container and let it cure in direct sunlight before littering.

Q: What resin do you have? $?

At the moment we only offer one resin, our own formulation which is working fine with our printer. We don’t know if other people´s resin would work, you would need to alter the resin table in our firmware simply over the internet. You might however destroy the tilting/peeling mechanism, and guarantee is void. Our resin is one of the least expensive. We don’t know if it works on other printers, you might need to alter their parameters in their software to work with our resin.

Q: Will you create lost wax casting resin and other colors?

We will offer castable resin in the future, and you can try to dye our transparent resin to create all possible colors. As long as you don’t buy the dye from us (will be offered in future), guarantee is void.

Q: Do you have local dealers or how much is the shipping? Where do I get consumables?

We will gradually build up a dealership and start by selling through our site. Here you can buy non- liquid consumables like an extra vat, extra/ broken parts, anodes, etc.

IPA, electrolytes, sprays, etc. are considered dangerous goods, their transportation may be restricted in your country. So we prefer showing a list of professional vendors of these chemicals in your country. Our resin will be sold/shipped by ourselves and via distributors, as we will also establish (remote) delivery centers in the most interesting countries.

Q: How much is the shipping, what countries do you ship to?

Please look at our shop site.

Q: Is there a guarantee for the products?

Yes, please look at our terms site.

Q: What comes in the set?

GP13 series: The printer, wall adapter EU/US according to your order, 1Liter of resin, the electroplater´s turntable, 1 container, anodes: copper; lamp, filter funnel, laser pen, laser goggles OD4. All in one carton 50x35x30cm, 15kg.

Q: Why do you include a laser pen and goggles?

Those parts are for the real artists: do a drawing ca 12x12 cm, lay the vat with 3mm resin inside above the drawing, goggles on, and draw the lines of the sketch with the pen. This is a special pen with a focusing length at ca 5cm, so you can alter the beam width be changing the distance pen<>resin. The object is then galvanized, so you can create home decoration like a poem in golden letters at the wall, starts for the Christmas tree or whatever. It works quite fast and is a huge fun for the kids, i.e. to have their names gold-plated on their doors, or they produced their first rings them self, there are endless possibilities.

Q : Do you use PDMS vats that must be replaced after a few prints?

No, we use a special fluor-film that holds much longer.

Printing process

Q: Do printer or plater need any calibration?

Quite everything is automated here: the printer´s table will find its position towards the deck, the galvo speed it measured during print, as well as laser power, all reactions to print size, temperature, dust, etc are measured and calculated. The load cells and all other sensors help to always work in useful working conditions and avoid abnormal wear of material.

 

Q: Can the resin stay in the vat?

We recommend using our plastic filter funnel to pour the resin back into the bottle where it can be stored for a longer time, >6months.

Q: What is the procedure after the printer indicated a finished print ?

First take out the table, then the vat. The Genius Printer has a protective transparent plate to keep resin drops from falling onto the electronics, but the optical section needs a hole in that plate, so worst case could be a droplet onto the galvos, which might destroy them. So table out first!

Rinse IPA onto the object. Not more than half a minute. Air-dry the object, no water! If you want to plate the object: spray acrylic lacquer, let dry, then conductive copper spray, let dry, then start the plating process with copper galvanization, then galvanize with whatever you like.

Electroplating with the genius printer´s set

Q: Why should I want to electroplate?

There are several reasons: The surface will be:

Smooth, less abrasive, shiny/brilliant, electrically conductive, non corrosive, constant material properties (plastic gets brittle over time, especially in the sunlight), nicer look, higher tensile and burst strength.

Q: What sets the genius printer´s electroplater apart from other platers?

The genius printer´s electroplater is controlled by the 3d printer´s software. This way the plater knows exactly the dimensions, surface area and structure. These properties define the voltage per metal, the current over time and plating time to reach the customized metal thickness of each metal. The electrolyte use is calculated to automatically tell you when it´s time for refreshments Moreover, the genius printer´s electroplater is PWM controlled, so the plating process is faster andsmoother.

The object is turned in order to arrive at a constant liquid flow and equal distances from object to anodes. The anodes are super large to get the most homogeny plating. Many rectifiers go just up to 3 amps, ours does 5 amps.

The whole process is computer controlled, current and voltage are constantly supervised according to a (customizable) table.

The genius printer´s set comes with 2 polycarbonate containers, one of the best materials to store chemicals. With 2 containers, you can leave the electrolytes in their containers after use of each process and don’t need to change the anodes. You only put off the turntable lid, close the used container and move over to the next chemical is the next container. All containers come with airtight lids.

Galvanizing manually is mostly guessing, our computer controlled PWM plater measures the voltage and current constantly, and changes all parameters according to a program that pulls the data from a table, i.e. the voltage starts low and rises over time, same with the current. This is one of the reasons why electroplating with Genius Printer´s equipment is different to plating with a tiny anode in a glass pot, using a tiny rectifier manually.

Q: Why would I need 2 containers?

Electroplating mostly is a combination of different consecutive processes: You need to make the object electrically conductive, that spray needs to stick to the plastic, so an acrylic lacquer is sprayed before. After applying the conductive copper spray, you start the galvanizing process with copper sulfate in the container with the copper anode. Then you move over to Tin, Chrome, Silver or Gold. The more you want, the more complicated it gets. You can always do better of course, like Rhodium to protect Gold from corrosion.

Q: Can I use the plater for objects printed with GP13 only?

Of course not. You can galvanize stone, wood, metal, glass, leaves or whatever. Just enter the surface area data into the table so the GP software knows the sizes and can calculate the process.

Q: How save is plating?

If you use the chemicals like they are meant to be used, plating is safe. Use gloves, glasses, cover your body, ventilate the working place, work concentrated.

Q: Do you deliver the chemicals?

No. Although we would never use code T chemicals, it is still safer to provide you a list of chemicals dealers in your country.

Q: Do the chemicals get used/old, need replacement?

Yes, they will need refreshments over time/use, you can buy those at your chemicals dealer. He will also explain how to waste each specific chemical should you want to do so. The program will tell you when it´s time to refresh what chemical.

Q: Can I plate two or even more metals on one object to get different colors?

Yes, mask unwanted areas with marker ink, galvanize, put off some ink where you want to galvanize in the next step (color) with IPA (Isopropyl alcohol), and continue galvanizing until all marker is off.

Q: My parts are much smaller/larger than what´s possible with your containers, could I use my own?

Yes, of course. If you use much smaller containers, you wouldn’t need to use that much electrolytes, or less demineralized water. Or still use ours with a longer wire as hook. If your containers are larger, you would need more water/more electrolytes. However the some electrolytes need a current per large object surface that surpasses the plater´s current capacity of 5 amps.