RIZE, a Boston-based additive manufacturer, has partnered with Little You, a Toronto-based custom figurine company, to create durable and unique full-color anime figurines.
The figurines reveal the enormous potential for full-color 3D printing with RIZIUM Glass Fiber, a composite that can handle being dropped, bent and twisted. RIZE also makes a proprietary line of other safe and non-toxic 3D printer materials, which include RIZIUM Carbon, RIZIUM Support and RIZIUM inks.
“The XRIZE printer combines fused filament fabrication with ink jetting,” said Eugene Giller, RIZE founder and chief technology officer. “We run our two inkjets over the RIZIUM glass fiber composite to create a color. This way, the color is inside the part, consistently distributed around it and less likely to fade than if the part was coated with the color.”
Giller said the XRIZE printer, which retails for approximately $40,000, is also being used to create models of skeletons, consumer products and topographic replicas of real-life locations, such as mountains. The 3D printed models can be used for academic study, sales presentations and to help individuals like hikers become familiar with a landscape before a trek.
“We think every school eventually should be required to have safe, zero or low-emission, 3D printers in-house,” Giller said. “Our goal is to expand on the partnership with Little You so 3D printing is much more widely available.”
Christina Guo, founder of Little You, said the XRIZE printer currently prints over 400 templates she designed herself.
“We’ll add another 500 templates to our software in June 2021,” Guo said. “In the future, we want to provide customers with the option to upload their own image, to create figurines of themselves, as well as texture for features like hats and hair.”
Guo said Little You started out printing the figurines in sandstone with the additive technology firm Shapeways. These figurines can crumble if they are not handled gently.
“Then RIZE read about us and contacted us with the offer to make our toys of RIZIUM,” Guo said. “Now, children can throw a figurine on the floor, and it will not break. We can also make the figurines larger—scaled to 5 cm, 8 cm and 10 cm—than the sandstone figurines. Those are printed at 3 cm, 4 cm and 5 cm specifications.”
Giller said RIZE has performed a number of tests on Little You figurines to see whether small parts could break off or present a choking hazard.
“After the print, we use a special tool to remove the unnecessary filament,” Giller explained. “When we remove the excess material, I bend them and throw them in different tests. The toys can take a lot of wear. They’re also waterproof.”
3D Printing Means Low Costs for Startups
The business arrangement between RIZE and Little You involves a customer creating a design with Little You’s software. Little You then transfers the file to RIZE, and RIZE prints and ships the figurine to the customer. Little You receives a share of the profit from each figurine.
The process that RIZE and Little You follow for each print benefit both sides. RIZE staff are able to see the wide variety of Little You’s designs up close.
RIZE is also able to keep the sometimes delicate process of removing support structures in-house. These supports are rectangular or square pieces that hold up a small 3D printed part, such as a hand connected to an arm. Supports are critical to keeping figurines intact during a print but should be removed after the print is complete.
“Having founded RIZE as a startup myself at the end of 2013, I know equipment can be expensive,” Giller said. “This arrangement allows businesses like Little You to get a high-quality print and materials without having to buy and maintain the equipment, as well as ensure the figurines are ready to ship.”
Giller further discussed how RIZE’s first printer, the RIZE One, could only print in one color.
“Within three years, we created a color printer,” Giller said. “Even with the pandemic, we made drastic improvements on color quality in the last year. RIZE now has four different 3D printers on the market. We’re able to print with up to six cartridges and in monotone. We’re also working on a new printer.”
The RIZE team, which consists of approximately 30 people, is multidisciplinary.
“We have software engineers, mechanical engineers and material science engineers,” Giller said. “During the pandemic, all of us have been working from home using Microsoft Teams. We sent a printer home with almost everyone, every engineer and even a few managers and salespeople.”
According to Giller, global supply chain disruptions have not presented a concern to operations.
“RIZE’s suppliers for the filament and the 3D printers that RIZE makes, the RIZE One and the XRIZE, are based in the U.S.,” Giller said. “The filament compound is made in Wisconsin. The extrusion process takes place in Wisconsin and western Massachusetts.”
The exception to the U.S. sourcing is that RIZE has an initiative called the RIZIUM Alliance. Third-party 3D printer manufacturers can adapt their platforms for increased safety by adapting them to use RIZE’s materials, software and process. Sindoh, a South Korean manufacturer, is a RIZIUM Alliance member that provides two printers that RIZE cobrands and sells as the RIZE 2XC and the RIZE 7XC.
Changing What Artists Can Create
Guo expressed excitement about the new audiences that RIZE will help Little You reach.
“We just started our partnership with RIZE to offer figurines made of RIZIUM in May 2021,” Guo said. “It’s too early to tell what the age breakdown of customers will be with the new material.”
Guo said she would like to expand Little You’s customer base to anime fans and gamers. She would eventually like to collaborate in partnerships with game development companies and comics publishers.
“Right now, we’re using social media and search engines to explore the potential of working with virtual camps and fan communities,” Guo said. “We want to pitch to art teachers, to parents through children’s magazines and through educational apps. We’re working with influencers to showcase our figurines to families.”
Guo studied material design for her bachelor’s degree at the Ontario College of Art and Design, and business, entrepreneurship and technology for her master’s degree at the University of Waterloo. She came up with the idea of using 3D printing to create customizable figurines in 2015.
“This is why in 2019 I closed U-Dimensions, my video game marketing and merchandising platform, to print collectibles based on video game characters,” Guo said. “I wanted to perfect the software for Little You. It lets the customer do a lot more to create a unique piece.”
Giller relates to Guo’s interest to allow customers to be creative.
“In 2011, I started creating the printers we’d make at RIZE at home in my attic,” Giller said. “It’s normal for me to work on my own, always improving upon my ideas. Our partnership with Little You has taught me a lot. We’re now thinking of moving into other consumer-faced applications for clients who want to design and customize their artwork and inventions.”
Read about engineering.com’s prior coverage of RIZE’s safe-at-home 3D printing here.