Lewihe, fastest 3D printer printing FilaFlex, hits Indiegogo starting at $499
On Friday Spanish company Lewihe has launched an indiegogo campaign for their new 3D printer that allows you to print with Filaflex and other materials in high speed and accuracy.
Lewihe was founded by Juan Tendero, Jordi Tendero and Jose Manuel Quiles, who have been working hard in the last 14 months to make an affordable 3D printer capable of producing high quality prints.
The Lewihe 3D printer features aluminum chassis and a large print area of 185 x 185 x 185 mm (7.28 x 7.28 x 7.28 in). It uses SAV MKI electronics developed by Francisco Malpartida, a one stop electronics to get your 3D printer up and running. This affordable 3D printer electronics has multiple interfacing possibilities: it features high speed native USB interface connectivity going up to 8Mbps so that there is no lag on your prints. It includes 12V built-in fan controller for hot end cooling, micro SD reader for autonomous printing, expansion bus to connect a keyboard and LCD. It supports for 4 standard pololu compatible stepper motor drivers.
One unique feature is that the printer is designed to work directly with flexible filament such as FilaFlex. The Lewihe stainless steel extruder can print with both flexible and rigid materials and is compatible with other printers such as Prusa i3.
The Lewihe 3D printer is capable of printing with FilaFlex with the speed of 150mm/sec, and according to its creators, their next goal is to increase the print speed to 200mm/sec.
Lewihe team has been working together with Ignacio Garcia of Recreus team in hot end development and printer testing. Recreus team has developed Filaflex, an elastic filament that allows you to print elastic parts from sneakerbot shoes to flexible joints.
"I have been collaborating with hotend development and testing, and I can say it's awesome," said Garcia. "It had never got clogged during our one month testing, pretty easy to use."
The team is offering 50 units of Lewihe 3D printer kit for $499 on indiegogo to super early brid adopters. The Lewihe kit version will cost $799 and an assembled Lewihe 3D printer is priced at $995. In addition the company also offers a Lewihe Pro version ($1,195) which includes WiFi and webcam, a useful feature to remote control and get visual feedback.
The company is looking to raise $ 60,000 on Indiegogo for full production.
Lewihe technical specifications
Fused deposition modeling
Print area 185 x 185 x 185 mm (7.28 x 7.28 x 7.28 in)
50 microns layer resolution
1.75 mm filament diameter
0.4 mm nozzle diameter
Plug and Print PLA, ABS, LAYWOOD, FILAFLEX and others
Open source software
STL and OBJ supported objects
Only 8.5 Kg
Closed aluminum chassis
CORE XY system
SAV Mk-I
External power supply
USB
WiFi +On board camera (optional)
