Makerbot 3D Printer Demo for Lumia 820 Cases

At the MWC 2013, Nokia has announced partnership with Makerbot for printing cases for Nokia Lumia 820 and 520. Makerbot’s Replicator 2 is a 3D printing solution and this technology is used to create cases for Lumia phones with designs on the back cover. Nokia presented us with a WPXBOX branded case earlier at MWC.

The cases are printed directly from the design being added to it. Plastics are used for printing the cases and they are heated to form the case. Makerbot says that it takes more than a hour to print a case and if the finish is made finer, it will take more time. The cases are hard and gives complete protection for the phone.

We had a chat with the Makerbot guys at MWC and here is the video of case being printed.

Nokia released the files which was downloaded by these guys and used to print the Nokia Lumia 820 Cases. As a matter of fact anybody with these designs and a 3D printer at hand can print this.

These cases can be customised as per anybody’s need. As an example you can have your own logo at the back or your name. You can infact print a key holder with a demo key to fit in or use the actual key.

The case is developed layer by layer using the liquid plastic. The plastic is drawn from the behind and melted at the other end. This melted plastic is then used to draw the picture and the case. The liquid is called as PLA or Polylactic acid which is biodegradable.

While printing the case you can choose resolution. A higher resolution results in even higher quality of the case. The thinner the layer, the smoother the curve will be.

However at this moment its not possible to mix two colours but if you can pause the printing in between and then change the colour of the liquid, you can resume back and then print with the second colour.

Below is the video of how the printer looks from Inside. Enjoy the show!!!