Give your tablet a new purpose: let’s 3D print with New Lumifold TB

The New Lumifold is a new line of super compact devices for 3D printing based on an original mechanical system created by Lumi Industries, making them smaller than their printing volume.

New LumiFold TB, the first of the family, is a resin-based 3D printer using a tablet screen to polymerize special day light resins, we are going to showcase from 12th to 14th October at the European Edition of Maker Faire in Rome.

As Davide Marin, Lumi Industries founder and CEO explains “For us, user-friendly running, affordable price range and especially compactness have always been our key values at the base of our products. In fact, we were the first one, back in 2013 right at the first Maker Faire in Rome, to introduce the idea of portability in resin-based 3D printing with LumiFold, a maker project, for a printer which was even foldable!”

The New Lumifold disruptive mechanical system, allowing the 3D printer to be very thin and totally space-saving when off and closed, but to grow in height, when on and printing, was first launched in 2015.
We have been working on it since then, redefining the system to reach a professional accuracy level up to 25 microns on Z axys, developing a powerful electronic board without compromising the minimum size, finding a functional, minimal but also eye catching and cool aesthetic design.
The system can be applied to different 3D printing technologies being them filaments or different type of resin techniques (SLA, DLP, LCD).

We like to experiment, and we choose to use a tablet as light source for our first model. It was the best choice to show the extreme compactness this line of 3D printers can reach, together with the possibility to give a new life to your iPad as an active player in 3D printing. Unlike already seen project using a smartphone, we are using an iPad Mini model 3 or 4, with a resolution on XY axis of 78 microns, ensuring a wider printing area of 10*10 cm without the hassles of a mobile phone functions (call/messages).
The tablet is inserted under the resin vat, covered with a thin fep. A proprietary App slices and processes the 3D file. Once the file is ready for printing, you just need to click “start”: the 3D printer, connected via Bluetooth to the iPad, will move up each time that a layer has been cured thanks to the light emitted by the screen itself.

When off and closed the printer is only 18*28* h. 8cm while when fully open it can reach approximately 18 cm, ensuring a good 10 cm height for 3D printed parts.

The resin used is not the usual UV resin, but a special formula much more reactive to visible light, called “daylight”, they are a bit slower than UV resins, but the result is excellent.
Please find some tech specs:

printer size: 28*18*h.8 cm when off and closed
printer size when fully open: 28*18* approx. 18 cm
Building area: 10*10* h.10 cm
Resolution X/Y 78 micron
Resolution Z: up to 25 microns.
Resins: day light resins
Light source: iPad mini 3/4 (other tablets and even phones can be also used, however the current device was specifically designed for the iPad mini 3/4), and an App has also been designed to work on IOS.
Bluetooth connection between tablet and printer
Patented design

“The idea of this system has been in my mind for years like an obsession” Davide Marin admits. “Finally, in 2015 I was able to file a patent application and launch officially the idea of the New LumiFold. Since we started working at the development of an open innovation project for a multinational company, I was able to proceed in the project development only during my free time. But finally, it is here and working just I have imagined. The next step is to apply the system on an LCD version, while a filament one is also in the pipeline, compatibly with all our other projects, so we are looking for collaboration to speed up the process, anyone interested?!”

LumiFold TB will be showcased at next Maker Faire Rome from 12th to 14th October, at Smau Milan from 23rd to 25th October, at Formnext Frankfurt from 13th to 16th November, and soon available in presale in our store on line.