Ultimaker released their third generation desktop 3D printer, The Ultimaker 3. With this release Ultimaker announces a new generation of 3D printers.

The Main Improvements

High uptime and maximum performance

With the Ultimaker 3, users can easily switch between print cores, which are tuned for each material. Note that these Print Cores are optimized for Ultimaker’s own industrial grade materials to maintain high quality with repeatable output. The result is that multiple users can now have access and can easily change the Print Cores for any application.

3D printing with unlimited geometrical options

Thanks to the new dual extrusion system, this new generation can print more complex 3D models with unlimited geometric options and more types of industrial quality materials (including soluble material PVA).

This means designers will approach the design process in a different way with less limitations and more freedom to make their models as complex as possible.

User-friendliness thanks to improved printer automation

The improved printer automation will eliminate all guesswork that normally comes with preparing a print. An example of this is the smart material detection which means the UM 3 can detect a material with the help of NFC-technology and change the material settings accordingly.

The UM 3 also includes active* bed leveling, a USB port, ethernet and WIFI functionalities which all result in more accessibility for the users.

* So what is active bed leveling? Well it’s not a fully automatic bed leveling system like we know from for instance the Lulzbot TAZ 6. The electronics that you need to achieve fully automatic bed leveling would make the bed too heavy and as a result the Z-axis would probably skip steps.

So with the Um 3 you do have to manually adjust the three screws bed but in reality that would probably only be once with the initial setup. After the initial setup a sensor in the nozzle and an electronic field on the bed detect if the Z-axis needs adjustment and can activate an automatic adjustment of the Z-axis.

Other Great Features

The new Ultimaker 3 supports a large range of technical materials, including Nylons with soluble PVA.

The option to track progress of your prints in realtime is made possible because of a built-in camera that is connected with Cura.

The Ultimaker 3 will be available in an extended version. The dimensions of the extended version can be found in the specifications below.

Ultimaker 3 Specifications