And this article explains the relationships with CAJ....

And this article explains the relationships with CAJ.

http://www.brw.com.au/p/printing_boom_tipped_for_christmas_XpQb43TNthxnmr6FGoVjJI

The growth of 3D printing in Australia will be driven by kids, says entrepreneur John Conidi, who predicts affordable, easy-to-use 3D printers will become the “gift of choice” at Christmas next year.

Conidi, the managing director of listed radiology business Capitol Health, has launched two businesses he hopes can ride the 3D printing wave.

One is 3D Medical, which will print three-dimensional anatomical models to assist surgeons before they perform operations, potentially reducing the time such operations take.

The other is 3D Group, whose Melbourne plant Conidi says has already manufactured Australia’s largest 3D printer – a 1.8-cubic metre unit which will feature at next week’s ‘Inside 3D Printing’ expo in Melbourne.
3D Group has ambitious plans to supply 3D printers, manufactured in Melbourne, to every primary school in Australia.

“We’re getting some traction talking to politicians about helping us do this,” Conidi says.
“It’s obvious that 3D printers have a place in the curriculum, they get kids thinking about science and unleashing their creativity.”

The distribution of the printers would be backed by an online community, akin to the Thingiverse curated by printer manufacturer MakerBot, where templates for 3D printing designs licenced under “creative commons” can be downloaded.

Revenue from designs downloaded from 3D Group’s community would be shared with the participating schools, says Conidi, who has also just partnered with Kibaran Resources to investigate applications for its Tanzanian-mined graphite and graphene in 3D printing.

However, kids will only get interested in 3D printers if they are easy to use and versatile – qualities lacking in the 3D printers on the market to date, argues Scott Pobihun, Canberra-based co-founder of Hardcotton.
Most of the 3D printers on the market to date – such as the $699 XYZ da Vinci made available this year on kogan.com – use the “fused deposition modelling” approach, based on heated plastic squeezed through a vat.

However Pobihun says the “stereolithographic” approach – where photosensitive resins are cured with laser light – is far more accurate, if to date more expensive.

Pobihun hopes to bring stereolithographic 3D printing within consumers’ reach. A pending Kickstarter campaign will offer a pressure-controlled 3D printer – a world-first, according to its inventor – for $1000 per unit.

Pobihun, a government lawyer by day, is betting big on a 3D printing boom: he funded the 30 prototypes it took to deliver his final product by selling two properties he owned in Canberra.

“I really want to promote this decentralised, home manufacturing boom that 3D printing could bring about,” he says.

The Hardcotton machine is simpler to maintain than stereolithographic versions before it, Pobihun claims.
“It’s a plastic injection-moulded chassis and vat, with some electronics and valves. There’s no need for pulleys and cogs and stepper motors,” he says.

However, this potential catalyst of a home manufacturing boom will not itself be manufactured in Australia.
While John Conidi’s 3D Group says it can make Melbourne manufacturing of its units stack up, Pobihun says the quotes he received from domestic manufacturers were “eight times higher” than from factories in China.