Interview with Italo Soares – 3DCreator – Brazil Projects

Italo Soares is a 3DPrinterChat friend, and we are writing about 3DPrinting here since the beginning. Now he started to fabricate 3DPrinters in Brazil, and he is also the next in line to be interviewed on my series about Brazilian Projects! Let’s see what he has been up to?

1) How 3DCreator started?

The company 3DCreatorBrasil came from adream to make a 3D Printer back in 2013, at the time I was studying automation and industrial control systems and needed to build something for my final paper, We tried to build a 3D printer as our final paper at the course. But unfortunately, this wasn’t possible due costs (about 2k USD) and knowledge about it. Three years later, I built my first 3D printer, the famous “Graber” variant from Prusa i3 original design. At first, it was only used for hobby, but in three months I saw the potential in 3dprinting. So I created the company “3DNinja” which the main product was selling 3d printing services. In the end of 2016, the 3DPrinters available in the market were either extremely expensive (3-4k USD) or had a crappy final quality/repeatability. I had reached a critical point, where I needed to either buy expensive machines or build something new. That’s when I’ve chosen build my first 3DPrinter project. The 3DCreator beta. One year later, and we finally have managed to create a truly easy and “plug and play” 3D printer.

 

2) What printer models do you currently manufacture?

Today we are only selling the 3DCreator DUO. Which is the first 3D printer to offer the dual extrusion in a single nozzle in Brazil. Currently, it supports 14 kinds of materials, dual color extrusion, dual material extrusion and a revolutionary calibration system, which compensates for every possible deformation on the printing bed, the surface where the printer was placed, and
possible deformation on the axis.

3) Were they based on some other open source project? If so, which ones?

The 3DCreator DUO had inspiration in several projects; the most important ones were the Ultimaker 1, Ulticampy V3, Prusa Original and Immagina e Crea. Both Ultimaker 1 and Ulticampy are now open-sourced. We have also reverse-engineered some other brands.

 

 

 

4) What are the technical specifications of 3DCreator DUO and BIG? Which types of materials they support?

The 3DCreator DUO currently supports dual extrusion, capable of using most of the available thermoplastics available, it has a heated bed capable of reaching 120ºC, which eliminates warping on most materials. This 3D printer can reach printing speeds up to 7200mm/min on PLA and PETG without losing its final quality. There is more detailed information here (link:
https://goo.gl/GkuZEA)
The 3DCreator BIG is currently under development, it will feature a new unique feature that will be able to detect the filament end, and replace it with a new roll automatically, being able to print up to 4 kilograms without manually changing the filament. The useful printing area will be of 390x390x390mm and printing speed of 7200mm/min (or 120mm/s). We expect to start shipping this machine in June of 2018.

5) What are the challenges of manufacturing 3D printers in Brazil?

The main challenges are the lack of suppliers and taxes. Both really slow down the development of new products. In the third place, we have been able to compete with the low price Chinese’s kits.

6) I saw that you are planning a model of DLP Printer, where the inspiration came from? The costs to produce a BR DLP make up?

Yes, we are developing a DLP 3D Printer. Our inspiration comes from the need to have better quality machines, every technology has its limits, and the FDM has reached it’s for a lot of our customers, which need a better surface quality or smaller parts. About the costs, we have a hungry market here, which need to import their printers because of the lack of national manufacturers. The costs of importing are usually higher than the printer itself. We are developing a high-quality 3D Printer, which will cost about R$ 7.000 (~2.300 USD). This machine should start shipping around October of 2018.

7) You have already launched 3DCreator with two extruders. What is unusual about the world of 3D printing, since there are few models that come with Dual Extrusion by default. With this, you reach a more specific niche of
users. How did you prepare for it?

Indeed, we have reached more specific needs, as for example, printing the part with the material A, and supports with material B. We have prepared to assist our customers by trial and error here on our factory. There is a wall full of failed and successful printings, with the most common combinations. Using this tests, we are now able to tell which configuration should be used for each setup. We have preconfigured smart profiles, where the user should only choose
which material will be used, to what These profiles are constantly updated, based on reviews and suggestions from our clients.

8) What feedback have your customers given so far on 3DCreator? Since you are the newest company to enter the 3D Printing market Brazilian.

Today we have only good feedbacks, but of course, we had our share of bad feedbacks on the beta stages, our mission here at 3DCreator is to learn from them and improve our products. Always apply the “continuous improvement “methodology.

9) What has 3DCreator been preparing for the future?

There will be great news for 2018, We will be launching two new 3D printers (the BIG and DLP models), a filament treatment unit, which will be able to recover damaged filaments from exposure to the sunlight and humidity. And a filament storage unit which will prevent contamination and keep the filament always ready to use.
We are also exploring the “infinite axis” concept for a new 3d printer, which will be able to print an unlimited size on the Y-axis, or a huge batch of files, in a single run, automatically dispensing the parts and making space for new ones. We will provide more information about it as the development is made.

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Conclusion:

Italo is doing a good work. As mentioned, he is one of the first ones to build dual colors printers. Next year I will get the Creator Duo for an event and I may do a review of my time with it. You can find more about his company on their website.

The Creator Duo costs around 1.060 USD.