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RIZE Introduces Adaptive 2XC Desktop 3D Printer for Offices, Schools, and Homes

In 2016, Massachusetts-based 3D printing company RIZE Inc. released its first industrial-grade desktop 3D printer, the Rize One, renowned for its safety, low emissions, and elimination of post-processing. Then, in 2018, the company introduced the first industrial desktop AM solution for manufacturing full-color functional parts, the XRIZE system, which I was lucky enough to test out at RAPID 2019. Today, it’s announcing a new kind of desktop 3D printer, the professional RIZE 2XC, an adaptive system that was developed collaboratively with South Korean 3D printer manufacturer Sindoh.

I spoke with RIZE CEO Andy Kalambi ahead of the release, who told me that even during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the company has been “very productive.”

“It’s been an interesting time, but rewarding,” Kalambi said.

He said that the RIZE team speaks every morning during a check-in meeting, to make sure everyone is doing okay and see if anyone needs help with a project. Even during lockdowns across the US, the company has been busy, 3D printing personalized face shields that were distributed to hundreds of essential and healthcare works in the Boston area and working on the new 2XC.

“Entirely during COVID times, we developed this new printer with Sindoh,” he told me.

The RIZE 2XC was engineered from home offices, and, according to a RIZE press release, is a testament “to the safety principles embodied in RIZE’s solutions – principles that are especially relevant today as organizations reinvent workflows for a return to office locations.” The business supply chain needs to be even more flexible now due to COVID, and RIZE says its new printer can help. The 2XC can be used at home – no need to worry about germs spreading from lack of social distancing – and in offices and classrooms, with no fear of releasing harmful airborne volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

“The newer, higher performance, safe materials from next-gen FFF players such as RIZE are helping to drive a transformation in the 3D printing sector that are particularly relevant now as the world emerges from a pandemic. The durability and safety advantage that’s possible from next-generation 3D printing systems merits the attention of any engineering or design team that wants to give their users the best, and safest, tools,” Tim Greene, research director, 3D printing, for IDC said in the release.

The adaptive printer is the first deliverable to come from the RIZIUM Alliance, which is a new collaboration between RIZE and industry partners, like Sindoh, to drive safer, more sustainable 3D printing. The RIZE 2XC was made with a redesigned Sindoh dual-extrusion 3D printer, which can run engineering-grade RIZIUM materials that are moisture-resistant, recyclable, and zero emission.

RIZIUM One material

“We based our material on safety – it’s engineered for safety, durability, and strength,” Kalambi told me. “They’re medical grade, and especially in today’s context, things like sanitizing and being able to wash it with alcohol or acetone is important. Materials science is our differentiating factor.”

Kalambi told me that the ‘C’ in the company’s new 2XC printer stands for ‘composite,’ since RIZE takes a “material-led approach.”

“What we have done now is taken our material portfolio and partnered with industrial players, so we can offer it to a broader market of users.”

Sindoh is applying the innovative RIZIUM materials, engineered for user health, so that customers in various sectors on its platform can use a safe, sustainable material at a lower price.

“With Sindoh, we’re working with the same materials,” Kalambi explained. “We have done lots of engineering efforts with them to get the printer ready for our materials, worked on nozzles and the drive train and the slicer, all of that, and made the printer far more robust. It’s a printer that is a joint product. It’s a new hybrid platform, releasing a set of products with Sindoh that’s based on our polymers and materials science.”

The two independent extruders on the RIZE 2XC are designed for composite filaments and hardened materials. One extruder runs RIZIUM polymers and composites, which can be washed with just soap and water, while the other runs the unique RIZIUM Support, created by RIZE specifically for filament-based extrusion 3D printers. All in all, RIZE says that its new printer offers a safe way to fabricate durable, strong, functional components, without any unnecessary post-processing.

“The RIZE 2XC is especially well-suited for a variety of Industrial and Academic applications,” Ricco Busk, Director at RIZE partner CADSYS, stated. “Given the high demand for having 3D Composite Parts, we are able to, almost immediately, sign up a customer for the RIZE 2XC to use in their innovative plastic molding applications, such as robotic grippers. Combining RIZE’s material advantage in the high quality, easy to use 2XC 3D platform opens doors to new markets for 3D printing that need precision parts made safely and sustainably.”

Kalambi told me that the RIZE 2XC has plenty of great features, such as a heated build plate, a camera for monitoring prints, and automatic bed leveling. Because the company’s Augmented Polymer Deposition (APD) platform has not been added, the system does not print in color, but he said that it does have “a much bigger build volume” in comparison to other desktop printers.

“It’s great for home and office use, as those industries wanted a good printer within a certain price point,” Kalambi explained. “Lots of 3D printing is being done in schools and offices, which is why we partnered with Sindoh…they have lots of knowledge in the education field. That industry had a requirement for a low-cost printer, and RIZE wanted to be able to offer a more affordable option.”

Kalambi also said that the RIZE 2XC is great for 3D printing industrial parts.

According to the RIZE release, this new printer is the first that has brought “safe, sustainable 3D printing” to the industry’s compact sub-$5k market, which can help organizations struggling to get back on their feet in a post-pandemic world get a leg up over the competition.

“Sindoh’s cooperative R&D effort with RIZE showed us that we chose the right partner indeed – a partner as committed to innovation in materials and technologies as we are. We’re delighted to expand our reach into more segments of the market through the cooperative solutions we are creating with RIZE,” said BB Lee, CEO, 3D Printing Division at Sindoh Co., Ltd.

The RIZE 2XC will be available from RIZE’s network of channel partners starting June 30th, for an introductory price of $3,995 in the US market and €3,995 in Europe. In the meantime, I’ll be keeping my ear to the ground, because Kalambi said RIZE will have some more exciting news to share with us in mid-July.

The post RIZE Introduces Adaptive 2XC Desktop 3D Printer for Offices, Schools, and Homes appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing.

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Kodak Launched New Design to Print Service, Showcased 3D Printing Ecosystem

Just a couple of short years ago, Kodak entered the AM market with its 3D Printing Ecosystem, which includes specialized software, the dual extruder, professional Portrait 3D printer, and a line of premium, low moisture content filaments. I learned a lot about this ecosystem while visiting Kodak’s booth at the recent RAPID+TCT show in Detroit, as the Portrait, and a wide array of example prints made on it, were being showcased.

On to new business first – the company launched its new Design to Print Service, which Kodak’s CCO and and co-founder Demian Gawianski told me is helpful for “customers who find designers’ time very valuable.”

“This can go from converting any 3D model into a 3D printable file to tuning the parameters on how to print those files,” he told me. “Basically, if you have complex geometry that wouldn’t go with our preset parameters, because it may have some bridges or overhangs or something like that, we would create the profile for the user, and our designers will actually print out the part to make sure it works.”


The company was offering a launching offer for its new service at the show – any customer who purchased the Portrait 3D printer at RAPID would also receive a $500 credit for the Design to Print Service.

This valuable service is an easy three-step process: first, share your project on your Kodak 3D Cloud account. Then, interact with the company’s professional designers in order to get a quick quote for the project, in addition to an estimated completion date. Finally, have your part optimized for a guaranteed result, printed, and tested by the Kodak team. You will then receive an STL file from the company that’s been modified for successful 3D printing. The service is available in English and Spanish, from 8 am to 5 pm EST, for a standard rate of $45 an hour; a priority job is available for an hourly rate of $90.

“We want to make sure that the user has a very successful experience, with any level of knowledge they may have about 3D printing,” Gawianski continued. “We want to have a comprehensive approach.”

This includes providing users with the right materials and hardware, empowered by good software, and Gawianski believes that Kodak’s design solution offers this unique, comprehensive approach.

Then we moved over to the Portrait 3D printer, which features a compact 215 x 210 x 235 mm build volume with a magnetic, heated build plate and dual extruders. With an intuitive color touchscreen that supports multiple languages, HEPA filter with activated carbon, automatic bed leveling, and live print monitoring via a built-in camera, I can see why Kodak calls it “the new standard for ‘desktop’ professional printing.”

Gawianski noted the “fully enclosed chamber,” which helps enable a “high level of control,” stability, and accuracy. He also pointed out the dual extrusion system with automatic nozzle lifting. The #2 hotend on the left is Teflon for high temperature materials, while the one on the right is metal for lower temperatures. The part being printed while we were standing there was out of white ABS.

“It would be difficult to achieve this level of quality on another printer with ABS, because it would warp and have all kinds of problems,” he explained.

Then we walked over to a setup in the corner of the booth that had caught my eye when I first arrived. A Portrait 3D printer – which was currently operating and weighs about 35 kg – had been placed on a rather thin-looking wooden platform, which was suspended by ropes that were attached to nylon hooks 3D printed on the Portrait itself.



The nylon hooks were strong enough to keep the platform stable, so the print could continue uninterrupted with “the same level of quality” while it was fabricating a blue part out of strong but flexible Nylon 6.

“The printer comes with two filament cases. You open the back of a filament, and place the filament in the case,” Gawianski said. “It has a silica gel that continues to protect the filament all the way from the manufacturing plant to the printed part.”

This case protects the filament from absorbing dust or humidity. Kodak is open to Portrait customers using third party materials, but these clear cases are only for its own filament.



He then started to show me various parts made out of Kodak’s other materials, such as a blue skull printed out of PLA Tough with water-soluble PVA supports, an engineering part made out of ABS with HIPS supports that dissolve in Limonene, and a large part with a green top that can lift 700 lbs of weight.

Kodak offers 11 different materials, including strong, food-safe PETG and semi-flexible Flex 98 with high abrasive resistance. Gawianski brought out a 3D printed part that was a good example of the Portrait 3D printer’s dual extrusion. The figure, which bore a strong resemblance to the Egyptian god Anubis, was made with PLA+ (green) and PLA Tough (red), which are the two materials that come with the Portrait 3D printer out of the box.

“We also have Nylon 12, which is FDA certified and has high resistance to impact,” Gawianski said, showing me two parts in translucent white.

“We also have some further ABS parts – this is a delamination test,” he continued, scratching the side of a small container. “It’s difficult to achieve this with an open printer, you need an enclosed one.”

Kodak will soon be releasing some new materials to the market, such as acrylic, which I also got the chance to see.

Our conversation ended by discussing Kodak’s 3D printing software.

“We have a desktop solution, which is the Kodak 3D Slicer,” Gawianski explained. “And we have the Kodak 3D Cloud, that is a cloud management system that enables you to manage an unlimited number of printers in unlimited locations from a single data place. So from your computer, phone, whatever, you can manage this fleet of printer.”

I asked if the company had anything new on the horizon, and aside from new filaments, Gawianski also said we can expect to see a new 3D printer model by the end of the year.

Take a look at some more of my pictures from the Kodak booth at RAPID+TCT 2019 below:




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[Images: Sarah Saunders]