MIT, Manipal graduates give corporations a run for their money with their 3D printers

3D printing is gradually coming of age in India with many realizing its value and benefits. It is now possible to personalize products, cut down on traditional prototyping and tooling costs, identify design errors earlier and reduce travel to production facilities.

A company can compress design cycles by 3D printing multiple prototypes on demand right in the office, and create physical 3D models quickly, easily and affordably for a wide variety of applications. Coca-Cola, Nokia and eBay are all currently utilizing 3D printing technologies.

An Indian startup that is making waves in this field and raising a lot of eyebrows is Fracktal Works. Founded by Vijay Raghav Varada and Rohit Asil, they are giving larger and more established companies a run for their money. What is more surprising is the fact that the entire team behind it comprises of students who are still in college or have just graduated this year.

Fracktal Works

With an innovative approach towards product development using cutting edge technology, Fracktal Works aims to deliver refined and tested products for the world to utilize. Julia Desktop 3D printer, designed and fabricated at their research facility, enables various industries and professionals to optimize their design process and adds an extra dimension to their innovation capabilities.

They are involved in manufacturing, sales and service of Desktop fused filament fabrication 3D Printers and rapid prototyping services, with the ultimate goal of creating a system where anybody's innovations, projects and designs can be implemented without feeling the constraints of cost and accessibility. The company also proposes to get into robotics components and kits, and alternate Human Machine Interfaces using biomedical instrumentation.

Their Products

Julia

Julia a fused filament fabrication 3D printer with 100 micron resolution and an 8000CC build volume. It has already made a mark in the Indian 3D printer market with customers like Larsen & Toubro fascinated with its print quality and robustness. It is currently available for INR 65,000 excluding taxes.

Check out this video to see Julia in action:

Fracktal Studios

Fracktal Studios has a unique business model. It is a startup born out of a startup which caters to the mechanical and electronic design needs of professionals from diverse fields. With a dedicated team of mechanical and electronic system designers, they provide end-to-end product development service to provide solutions to engineering challenges. They have successfully developed many medical diagnostic tools and engineering prototypes.

They are also developing their own software, Fracktory, from scratch. The software will take a standard .stl file and allows the object to be oriented in the required position, slices the .stl file in that orientation and converts it to a Gcode which is used by the same software to control the movement of their modified HotEnd and its temperature. This also allows them to monitor the printer, making it a compact software solution for 3D printers.

Future Plans

Fracktal Works has many upcoming products in the pipeline.

Stereolithography (SLA) 3D Printer

This printer is currently in its initial iterations. It uses UV curable resin as print material and delivers high resolution prints with industrial grade quality

Food grade 3D Printer

The company is also working on a food grade printer to 3D print chocolates.

Snow Flake

Snowflake is an affordable 3D printer which delivers good print quality with Poly Lactic Acid (PLA). Developed at the same lab where Julia was designed and fabricated, it is intended to ensure that 3D printers are available at an affordable price to anyone who is interested in the technology and its applications. The Founders estimate that they will be able to make it available in the market for about INR 40,000.

Dual Nozzle Printer

Fracktal Works plans to develop a 3D printer with a dual nozzle to give the benefit of multi material and multi-colour printing to its customers. It will also allow them to use dissolvable support material to allow easy removal of support from the printed parts.

Differentiators

In an already saturated market, with a lot of companies already offering low cost but extremely powerful 3D printers, Fracktal Works plans to stand out by offering industrial quality at consumer price. Fracktal Works focuses on consumer experience/service as well as the printer. They offer on spot customer services and a six month warranty on their products. They also provide superior print quality through their customized extruder, and an Anti Warp spray which they invented. Another aspect that differentiates them from the rest is the youthfulness of the founders and the entire team behind the initiative.

The team behind it

Vijay Raghav Varada and Rohit Asil, who are Mechatronics and Instrumentation & Control Engineering Graduates respectively, are the Co Founders of Fracktal Works. The company is incubated under Manipal University Technology Business Incubator (MUTBI), Manipal. They also have an assembly unit and an R&D workstation housed in the same campus at Innovation Centre , Manipal Institute of Technology.

Vijay (right) is the CEO and Co-Founder of Fracktal Works. He was one of the founding members of 'Robomanipal', the robotics team of MIT, Manipal. He also lead it on to the Top 10 teams in Robocon India, appearing on National Television.

He has a passion for competitive robotics, travelling across the country and participating in various competitions at engineering colleges. He has also organised or helped organise competitions in Manipal, motivating students to take up an interest in competitive robotics. Vijay also has a keen interest in traditional art, and design and aims to study Product Design in the future.

Rohit Asil(left) is the CTO and Co-Founder Fracktal Works. Rohit and Vijay were finalists at NI-YANTRA organised at National Instruments, India for showcasing a brain controlled robot.Fracktal Works Currently has a team size of 25 members. They have already sold ' Julia' and their other products to private individuals and companies and have received amazing feedback.

The name Julia is derived from "Julia set" which is a fractal set which when plotted gives rise to beautiful and complex shapes, just like the printer Julia which can execute such designs. Fracktal works aims to use this nomenclature for its future products also.Do you want to own your own 3D printer or need customized 3D printed parts? You can reach out to the Fracktal Works team here .