3D Printing

Polaroid announces its own 3D printer

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Polaroid's ModelSmart 250S 3D printers lined up at CES 2016
Darren Quick/Gizmag
Polaroid's own 3D printer filament is available in nine colors
Polaroid Z-Axis adhesive sheets
Polaroid Modelsmart and packaging
Front view Polarid ModelSmart 250S 3D printer
Darren Quick/Gizmag
Polaroid's ModelSmart 250S 3D printers lined up at CES 2016
Darren Quick/Gizmag
Polaroid's ModelSmart 250S 3D Printer in action
Darren Quick/Gizmag
The print head calibrates itself automatically
A detachable glass bed also uses Z-axis adhesive for model application and removal
Wondows/Mac software provides real time filament level details
A built in Wi-Fi-enabled camera allows remote monitoring of projects
Polaroid's 3D model library
Polaroid ModelSmart 250S 3D printed engine model
Polaroid's Prep 3D printing software
Polaroid ModelSmart 250S 3D printed octopus
Polaroid's 3D model library examples
Polaroid's 3D model library examples
The ModelSmart 250S uses 1.75 mm PLA filament from Polaroid that's available in 9 colors
A chip within the filament cartridge provides real-time filament level information
The Polaroid ModelSmart 250S also prints in wood
View gallery - 19 images

Polaroid, the company perhaps best known for instant photo cameras, has jumped into 3D printers, announcing the new ModelSmart 250S at CES. The single extruder printer, made in partnership with UK inkjet cartridge maker Environmental Business Products, will initially be available only to the European market.

The sharp-looking ModelSmart 250S 3D printer bears the familiar (at least if you're over 40) Polaroid colors, adding a touch of nostalgia and brand continuity to the device. Print resolution can be adjusted from 50 to 350 microns, an internal Wi-Fi-enabled camera allows remote monitoring of projects, the extruder calibrates itself and a print speed of between 20 and 100 mm, while not the fastest, is nevertheless respectable. The maximum size of a printed model is 250 x 150 x 150 mm (10 x 6 x 6 in).

Front view Polarid ModelSmart 250S 3D printer
Darren Quick/Gizmag

The ModelSmart 250S uses Polaroid's own 1.75 mm PLA filament that's available in 9 colors. In addition, a wood-based filament is also available. Filament cartridges include an integrated smart chip that senses and reports the amount of material remaining within a cartridge.

Special adhesive sheets called Z-Axis Sheets are intended to be used with every project. The transparent dual-sided sheets reportedly make it effortless to start and remove what you're printing. Polaroid also claims that the sheets reduce wear and tear on the print head.

The company refers to the ModelSmart 250S as plug-and-play. Software designed to run on Windows and Mac is included, with Polaroid's Prep 3D printing software claimed to have you printing an object in as few as 3 clicks. A rudimentary library of .STL files is provided, with more projects of course available on open-source online repositories.

The fully assembled ModelSmart 250S 3D printer and related consumables will be available in Europe from early 2016. We've no word on pricing.

Source: Polaroid

View gallery - 19 images
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3 comments
pickypilot
As soon as I saw that Polaroid's developing partner was an inkjet cartridge maker, they lost me, and my business. Like printers, the cost of consumables, particularly "chipped" filament cartridges and "special Z-axis sheets" will add considerably to the cost of your finished product. I'm not interested.
OliverStarr
As every razor blade company in the world knows, you make the big money when you practically give away the razor and then collect a lifetime of revenue on the blades...
JimInziello
Wait what? how does having a replaceable film on the build plate have anything to do with the extruder's longevity? If the extruder nozzle (an $4-8 dollar part) is actually touching the plate, then it's not extruding, it's scraping the plate. It's almost like the person marketing this printer has no idea how it (or any fused filament 3d printer) works. Also, the chipping principles to keep track of filament use are not for our use, but to own the supply chain. If you wanted to keep track of that, you could just put a wheel based encoder at the extruder nozzle.