Roland launches first foray into 3D Printing

Roland DG Corporation, the world's leading manufacturer of wide-format inkjet printers and 3D devices, has released its first 3D additive rapid prototyping machine, the ARM-10.

Roland has become well-known in dentistry thanks to its DWX-4 and DWX-50 dental milling centres. Whilst not designed for use in dentistry as a greater level of precision is required, the ARM-10 is clearly a sign of things to come from the Japanese technology powerhouse. Incorporating a stereo-lithography process with a UV-LED projection system, the ARM-10 builds models by sequentially curing layers of resin from a liquid resin vat. Simultaneous production of multiple objects can be accomplished within the same work area to reduce modelling time in comparison with methods where lasers expose specific areas. Roland's imageCure resin becomes semi-transparent when cured and post-processing procedures such as support removal and polishing are simple to do. By adopting a suspended build system, resin consumption is minimised.