Today, the market is flooded with 3D printers, ranging from affordable desktop models to large industrial machines designed for specialized materials. However, these off-the-shelf options may not always meet your needs, especially if you want to develop unique products or combine 3D printing with other materials and manufacturing processes. Dark Matter Design creates custom 3D printers and digital manufacturing machines for these applications.

There are several approaches to building a custom 3D printer or digital manufacturing machine.

• The first option is modifying an existing machine to add the necessary functionality. This is usually the quickest way to get a custom 3D printer on the desktop scale.
• The second option is to build a custom robot-based 3D printer. This allows for more customization and enables larger build volumes. Industrial robotic arms form an excellent starting point due to their six axes of freedom and ability to mount custom tools.