Inventor Michael Joyce has developed a 3-D printer that uses an off-the-shelf data projector to create amazingly complex and detailed models instead of displaying tedious PowerPoint slides. Now he's brought his product, the B9 Creator, back to Kickstarter for a second successful campaign with over $290,000 in pledges following a $514,422 haul from June 2012.
The B9 Creator uses light cast from the projector to harden liquid resin into high-resolution plastic parts. Generally, it's a similar process to what Formlabs' Form 1 machine does, the main difference is the Form 1 traces the outline of a part with a laser while the B9 Creator projects a rasterized image onto a vat of resin. This technique allows the B9 Creator to build up to 20mm per hour in height, independent of the X/Y dimensions of the model.
It's a fascinating technology, but also presents novel challenges. The machine and build material must be tightly calibrated; variations in resin pigment could allow excess light to penetrate the vat and produce less accurate models. It's also pricier than other systems, both in hardware cost and the printable material — a 2.2 pound container of resin costs $84.00 while an equivalent amount of plastic for the MakerBot only costs $48.00.
The B9 Creator looks like a fixture from an old school sci-fi movie, but Joyce's CV reads like an action hero's — his career took off as an Air Force pilot, he learned the secrets of software engineering as a civilian, recruited an A team to compete for the X Prize, and ultimately became a fabricator of robots. He loved the concept of 3-D printers, but became disenchanted after seeing the resolution of fused filament fabrication machines. He came across a forum devoted to light-based 3-D printing technology and six months later he had his first project listed on Kickstarter and a patent pending.
The second generation B9 Creator is mostly the same as the original, but Joyce did incorporate some tips he got from early adopters, like a mechanical change that made the Z axis more stable, and a simplified process for adding resin to the vat.
One thing he did not receive, however, was a legal letter from big 3-D printing companies. "We've had absolutely no inquiries or letters of concern from anyone," says Joyce "We did a pretty good job coming up with something different." Still, despite his confidence that the B9 Creator doesn't infringe on any patents he admits "We're small enough that we're probably not worth the effort."
The B9 Creator is fascinating on its technical merits, but also in the way Joyce is using Kickstarter. "I'm not trying to grab new customers, I'm trying to serve the pent-up demand from the last one," he says. "I went through the expense of setting up a merchant bank account, but they didn't understand 3-D printing and wanted us to keep an 8-9 month cash reserve which wouldn't work. Plan B was Kickstarter."
His unusually short two-week campaign was essentially a way to manage working capital. Kickstarter may not be a store, but Joyce is treating it like a bank.
Photos: Michael Joyce