A high end multi-material 3D liquid jet printer. Print circuit boards, flexible materials, and full color.
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€253,506
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A high end multi-material 3D liquid jet printer. Print circuit boards, flexible materials, and full color.
About this project
The NexD1 by Next Dynamics is the first 3D printer to ever give high end prototyping capabilities to everyone by making Multi-Material, 3D Electronics printing, extreme precision, high reliability and fast printing times available in one exciting machine.
We took the most advanced, industrial 3D printing technology called PolyJet™, optimized and reconfigured it and shrunk the cost radically.
We call it DigiJet.
DigiJet technology is able of print a wide range of materials, including special resins with nano-particles or pigments.
The NexD1 prints fully functional circuits exactly like in a regular PCB and places them in any 3D configuration within your design. This is made possible by galvanizing a nano-particle infused resin. This is a truly new and revolutionary form of electronics manufacturing that opens up a limitless realm of potential in 3D prototyping.
Thanks to its 6 cartridge storage system, the NexD1 can print and combine six materials at once. There is no digital rights management (DRM) with our cartridges and a large array of compatible 3rd party photopolymers.
We are working with manufacturers in Germany to constantly create new materials and already have a wide array ready. These include hard base resins, conductive, flexible, colored, transparent and support materials. Our goal is to keep the cost below the competition, while retaining quality and being eco-friendly.
The NexD1 operates with non-toxic and highly water soluble support materials. Just use tap water to finalize your print instead of having to use toxic chemicals with an after-procedure kit or requiring any other tools.
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We developed our own, highly precise and cost efficient printhead, through which the NexD1 can achieve a precision of 10 microns at a very high speed. Each of the six piezo printheads has 200 liquid-jetting-nozzles with a diameter of 5 microns. A pre-heating system ensures a super precise flow and accurate deposition of the material that gets cured by a wide and high powered UV-laser after each layer.The printhead system is also self cleaning, to guarantee reliable performance every time.
Unlike other 3D printer manufacturers like Stratasys®, Objet® or 3D Systems® that buy their printhead technology from big companies like Ricoh® and Xerox®, we have developed our own proprietary printhead. This has allowed us to drastically reduce production costs, increase the capabilities of our printer and offer unrivaled value to backers.
Thanks to DigiJet technology coupled with our high powered UV-laser, we achieved super short curing times for each layer. The printhead covers a wide range of the printing area with one sweep and the deposited materials are then cured instantly by the laser. Due to the tiny drop size being jetted by 200 nozzles on each print head, no other 3d printer is capable of the precision and speed at the price point of the NexD1.
A beautiful 10 inch capacitive touchscreen allows for simple use and an easy workflow. We wanted everyone to be in full control and have the most simple experience, when printing anything with the NexD1. With the touch of your finger, you can change and slice your designs, giving you the full freedom you deserve as a Maker.
With Wi-Fi connectivity you are always up to date on any of your prints. Status notifications and remote access make it easy to let your creativity flow and free you of any limits.
We deliver worldwide. All rewards include shipping costs. Duty charges may apply.
All rewards include a two year warranty that covers the repair and/or replacement of any damaged critical parts. You pay only shipping & duties.
Cartridges will be available on our website post-campaign for $15-$100.
Makers | Hobbyists | Small Businesses
With the NexD1, you can manufacture and iterate almost anything!
We hope that our tech will become a launching point for budding businesses.
We like to think of our printer as a “start-up” starter!
In addition to our proprietary printhead, we have developed many other elements of the machine from scratch. By cutting out the middleman, our goal is to deliver the best specs at the lowest possible price. To aid in this, we’re hoping to raise $200K with our campaign to streamline mass manufacturing.
We came to Kickstarter because we wanted to make the tech available to creators, tinkerers, makers and early adopters. We know that the passionate and innovative crowdfunding community will play a vital role in the development of the NexD1 and we welcome all feedback.
We can’t wait to see what you build and what the future holds for 3D manufacturing!
Ludwig has always been a maker and tinkerer. He started building things at a young age and developed the Brushless Gimbal Controller. Since then he has been a part of many open source projects. As a hardware developer at Tinkerbots, he worked on engineering modular robotic building sets from scratch, bringing them to the marked and getting them certified. This is where he teamed up with Johannes.
As 3D-printer users, Ludwig and Johannes felt a 3D revolution never really came (due to quality and price barriers). They wanted to eliminate all of the things that annoyed them about 3D printing. So, in 2013, they set out to build a machine that produces PCBs.
After the first iteration, they saw great potential in their design. They decided to expand the machine’s capabilities and turn it into a fully functional 3D-printer. In 2015, Next Dynamics was born.
Shortly thereafter, Ismail came on board from another 3D printing company. They started approaching investors and the rest is history.
The team currently consists of eight people, working out of the Fab Lab in Berlin, an open digital fabrication space.
As makers ourselves, we know that there’s nothing quite like starting something small, bringing it to life, and building on it.
We have brought four generations of the NexD1 to life so far, and are now finalizing the design of our fifth generation machine for Kickstarter.
We are ready to move ahead with manufacturing and plan to start production at the end of July. Our product will be ready to ship by fall 2017 straight into the hands of makers and creators!
Thank you to Kickstarter backers and makers everywhere!
Risks and challenges
We’re working with trusted German manufacturing partners with whom we have already signed agreements and are confident we can deliver on our promises.
Like any hardware project, there are risks and challenges associated with manufacturing and supply chain logistics. There is always a chance that unexpected changes or issues may arise during execution impacting the delivery schedule such as production delays or component shortages. Should this happen, we will communicate this to backers promptly and with transparency.
Learn about accountability on KickstarterFAQ
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Q: What is the siza of a cartridge?
A: The cartridge capacity will be 600ml.Q: Can I add to my pledge for additional cartridges?
A: Yes, you can add the "Basic“, "Color" or "Conductive" cartridge set to your printer, by increasing your pledge and writing us a message on what Set you want.Q: Does the printer sense cartridge volume and report how much print volume is available?
A: Yes, there are multiple sensors that keep track of the cartridge level and material status. If one cartridge is going to be empty during the print, you will be notified and you can hot-swap it with a new one or refill the empty cartridge.Q: Do the cartridge prices include shipping to USA?
A: Yes, all prices are including shipping cost.Q: You mentioned the cartridges are fillable. So, do I have the option to buy a larger bottle of resin and simply fill the cartridges?
A: No, its just in case you use third party material.Q: Are you willing to provide empty cartridges for refill and/or experimentation?
A: Yes, we will provide empty cartridges for use with third party materials. -
Q: Have you figured out what kind of materials can be used to print?
A: You can use resin, Aqueous or eco-solvent based materials with a general viscosity lower than 200mPa @ 25 degrees celsius and a maximum particle/pigment size of 1micron. There are multiple sensors in the system that measure the flow and viscosity and control the piezo force as well as the closed loop heading system. In case of wrong properties of the material, the printer will not inject the material into the printhead to prevent any problems or damage.Q: Will there be castable resin for the NexD1?
A: We are already developing castable resin for the NexD1
We are going to release it once our Kickstarter campeign is finished and our online shop is available.
The price for a castable cartridge will be around 60$.Q: Are there any food-safe resins planned?
A: Not at the moment, as we are focusing more strongly expanding our current multi material capabilities. When the time comes, we will put our attention to this as well.Q: How high is the operating temperature of the "high temperature" material?
A: Up to 500°C, to achieve full soldering capabilities.Q: What resins are either available or imminent (within 6 months of campaign close)?
A: In addition to our current pledge cartridge sets, we are going to release castable, abs-like and magnetic material. Once we ship out all our printers, we are going to be focused on the development of even more materials.Q: Could you show off any examples of blended colors and multi-color prints or close-up photos of two materials next to each other??
A: Yes, we will continue with uploading pictures to show what this looks like. -
Q: What kind of multi-color 3d-format does the NexD1 accept?
A: For multi-color we accept: X3D and VRML97.Q: What would be the workflow, say from a multi-colored FBX to a NexD1 print?
A: Once you export X3D or VRML97, there is no more need to setup anything regarding to the colors, because these files contain all information about the color we need. There is also the option of the use of Multiple STL files with the same Zero point that match together. in this way you can select a color for each STL separately. This is also the way how multi material prints will work.Q: Can we slice externally and send a file to the machine?
A: Not for now, the slicer is running on-board because of the hardware floating point unit of our processor, in this way we achieve a really fast slicing time of only a few seconds, even for complex objects.Q: Will the slicing and driver code be open source?
A: Yes, they will be open source.
Especially our Beta Testers will get earlier access to the source code.
We know that we implemented some very powerful hardware and that it will be very important to let people tinker on the software themselves in order to release the full potential of our machine.
We think the open source development of the Slicer and even the file handling are a great way to discover and add more functionality. -
Q: Whats the build area?
A: Its 20x20x20cm or 8x8x8 inches.Q: How much will a replacement-head cost?
A: and resin supply system. But since the NexD1 will perform a self cleaning process after any print, we anticipate to have a much higher printhead lifetime than a normal PolyJet® printer.Q: At what wavelength do you do your polymerization?
A: The wavelength is 405nm. -
Q: What is the time per layer and the layer height?
A: One average layer takes between 3 to 5 seconds and is dependent on the size, height and material. The layer height is adjustable between 10 to 200 microns… we also have an experimental mode, which allows 5 microns of z-axis resolution.Q: What are the increments of Z resolution?
A: The increments are in 5 micron steps.Q: What is the repeatability like?
A: We are anticipating an objective repeatability of <50 microns in X and Y and 10 microns in Z.Q: Is there any post cure required. If so, can heat be used instead of UV?
A: There is no post cure time required, like on any PolyJet® based printer, the printed part can be used once you remove the support material.Q: Do all colors print in one turn and are being cured at once?
A: For one layer the printer will do two turns. The first turn is for the support material and second turn for all model materials.Only for conductive materials, there is a third turn because of the 2 components that are placed on top of each other. With one turn including printing and curing.Q: How does the print quality compare in general to the Form1?
A: We achieved a better print quality than Formlabs®, especially regarding mechanical parts like small holes. But also the surface finishing is much better, at the highest resolution we get a really high glossy finishing that can't be achieved with any other printer. Once we are back in Germany, we can print a few samples on the NexD1 as well as on the Formlabs® Form2® to get a comparison.
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