This Gadget Will Turn Your Smartphone Into A 3D Printer
A US-based company has created a portable device that allows users to turn any smartphone into a 3D printer using the light from the touchscreen to process their plastic creations. The gadget called OLO, and its designed to be simple to understand and operate.
It is consisting of three plastic pieces,one motor, and one chip all operated by four AA batteries. It measures 720x1150x1480mm and weighs 780 grams and is compact, fully portable and light enough to fit in satchels or backpacks.
All the software processing is handled by the OLO app, available for iOS, Android, and Windows.
The company said “There is no manual levelling or calibration required, once an object has been loaded on the OLO mobile app and printing commenced, the app instructs the smartphone to light up specific pixels for a set amount of time. Resin affected by the light transforms from a goo-like substance into hardened material”.
The Printer consists of three main parts first is the reservoir that holds 400 cubic cm of printing volume second is 100-gram bottles of coloured photopolymer resin to develop user objects with and last is a mechanised lid under which the build plate and control electronics are tightly arranged.
The OLO app also permits users to forward printable images to other OLO app users for them to print.
First, we have to load a schematic of our object into the OLO mobile app that is available for iOS, Android, and Windows and then fit our smartphone into the base under the reservoir. A piece of polarized glass is installed into the base, which our phone's touchscreen will be facing when set in place.
Once user place the lid on top and the printer begins going, the app makes user phone's screen light up with a specific pattern. The polarized glass then takes all this light and deverts it so that all the photons are travelling straight upward. So as our phone's screen beams light up into the reservoir, the directed light causes a layer of resin to harden onto the build plate, which gradually moves upward as each new layer is made.
The first shipments of gadget are expected to start in September and its priced at $99.
The technology has also made an entirely new type of resin to use with the OLO. Called 'daylight resin', it’s been particularly designed to react to the white light that our smartphone screens emit.
"Users have the option to create designs that are hard, flexible, fusible, flexy, or elastic, mimicking familiar substances of PMMA, ABS, hard wax, soft PVC, and silicon," says Goodner. "The OLO mobile app calculates the necessary amount of resin required per print in order to minimise/eliminate waste."