The first 3D printer from Roland DG forms part of a series of desktop friendly machines
Roland DG has announced its desktop manufacturing monoFab series, including the Japanese company’s first foray into 3D printing, the ARM-10.
The launch forms part of its new monoFAB series of desktop fabrication machines from Roland, including a new subtractive prototyping and manufacturing machine, the SRM-20.
The ARM-10 3D printer incorporates a stereolithography process with a UV-LED projection system, using a suspended build system for the acrylic resin, joining the trend for a new generation of SLA desktop 3D printers.
The ARM-10 is an SLA printer, featuring a suspended build platform
Included with the printer is Roland’s own monoFab Player AM 3D printing software for taking STL data through to finished printed model.
It enables data correction, with a ‘healing’ function to fill in any gaps in 3D data and simplification of meshes, layout editing and automatic support generation.
The new SRM-20 desktop milling machine incorporates several new features for providing increased accuracy and smoother finished surfaces than its predecessors, using a new milling spindle, collet, circuit board and firmware, all in a compact desktop size.
The SRM-20 can mill a variety of non-proprietary materials typically used for prototyping, including modelling board, acrylic, ABS, wood and modelling wax, while an interlocked full cover prevents dust from escaping during milling for safe operation and a cleaner environment.
The company has drawn on its 25 years of engineering know-how for this series, and references a much older concept in the product series name, ‘monoFab’, from the Japanese concept ‘Monozukuri’.
‘Mono’ is generally recognised as physical objects and things, but historically includes the meaning of dreams, imagination and ideas, while ‘zukuri’ is to produce, fabricate or create. “We adopted the term ‘Fab’ as we sought to provide a set of new creative tools based on our long-cultivated desktop fabrication concept,” explains a Roland exec.
“‘monoFab’ represents taking what you have in your mind and giving it physical form, which is the same as our company’s vision of transforming your imagination into reality.”
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For more on why 2014 is the year of the next generation of SLA 3D printers, click here.
