The first Ricoh branded 3D printer will be showcased at the formnext exhibition in Frankfurt this month and made available to European customers by mid-2016. Up until now Ricoh - which set-up its Additive Manufacturing Business (AM Business) in September last year - has been selling third-party 3D printers.
With a modelling area of 550 mm (W) × 550 mm (D) × 500 mm (H), the new Ricoh AM S5500P employs an additive manufacturing method known as SLS. Using this technique, a powdered material is irradiated with the laser for sintering. In addition to the polymer powder materials mainly used with the SLS method, such as PA11 and PA12, universally applicable materials PA6 and PP can also be used. The unit can fabricate different kinds of parts at the same time, as well as large parts all at once.