These days, 3D printers face two challenges: increasing their precision and lowering their overall cost. Progress may seem too slow for some users, but we're getting there, and along the way we find products like OLO, which combines the most important elements of a 3D printer with a smartphone, ensuring a high degree of portability at a price that probably has no rival in the market.
Unlike other technologies, the potential of 3D printing has already been proven in various ways. Medicine, food, housing, restorations, repairs, clothing, education, musical instruments, vehicles, and even a jet engine are within the reach of 3D printers. The problem is putting one in every home at a reasonable price. Both printers and materials tend to be relatively expensive, and adding the fact that 3D prints are not consistent (some failures can be spectacular), the feeling is that this technology is not ready for mass consumption. However, the OLO project aims to send a different message:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/lRU6h46eAmgHow OLO works
What OLO proposes is to take advantage of the flexibility and popularity of smartphones to turn them into the heart of a new platform that will allow us to share and print objects in three dimensions without the need for a traditional computer. The printing method reminds us of the CLIP system we took a close look at last year, and uses the smartphone's screen as a light source. The maximum screen size supported in the OLO printer is 5.8 inches, and by offering apps for Android, iOS, and Windows Phone, the list of compatible phones is quite extensive. OLO also aims to launch a total of eight resins, each with special properties (hardness, elasticity, etc.).
A successful campaign
If there is one aspect we could consider negative about the OLO printer, it's that we have to leave the smartphone inside the main module for about four hours on average, although that's not enough to stop the printers from selling like hotcakes on Kickstarter. The campaign only sought $80,000, and in less than 96 hours it received more than half a million dollars. At this moment, the most economical entry point is $99 (it includes a bottle of resin), but for just $20 more you get a second bottle of resin and several extras. The first deliveries, between August and September of this year.
