Vietnamese doctor and cheap 3D printer project

At the end of 2012, Dr. Le Truong Son returned from the US to his wife's home after six years of living abroad.

In the suitcase of physicist Brown University (Providence) is the entire component of the first 3D printer designed by him, hoping to mass produce it.

Arriving in Vietnam, after inquiring about some production facilities, Le Truong Son faced the first problem: if produced in Vietnam, the product price is not optimal enough for large-scale production. .

'At that time, the price was also 600-700 USD / unit, equivalent to the cost in the US, not enough for large-scale development - Dr. Son, 32, explained to me during a meeting in Washington DC in September. - Plastic details for producing printers are quite complicated and production in Vietnam is still expensive.

Revolutionary production

Not producing a large-scale printer right away, Son still produced the motherboard set of printers for sale in the US market. He sold on eBay with production support in early Vietnam through a childhood friend. The sale of Son's chips went smoothly. He showed me the sales list with no bad numbers: over ten thousand dollars thanks to selling the board after only a few months.

3D printing technology has existed since the early 1980s, but is primarily for metal printing so the price is very expensive. The high cost and complexity of this printing technology only makes it possible for major manufacturers like Boeing and General Motors to use 3D printers to produce high quality products or designs.

Breakthroughs for 3D printers appeared only in the early 2000s when there were new technologies (and other ways of thinking about 3D printing) that could be developed into personal 3D printers.

Current 3D printers use a number of technologies, most commonly laser technology or FDM technology (fused deposition modeling) with materials primarily used as fibrous thermoplastics such as PLA or ABS. Metal printers or other materials are also available but are more expensive and more complicated.

Dr. Le Truong Son works in his laboratory.Behind is an old version of the 3D printer he made - (Photo: Thanh Tuan)

Basically, 3D printers are a type of robot with inputs that will be included in the computer design. 3D printers will have ink nozzles system (considered to be the most complicated part of technology), stepping motors to control the nozzle and the plane axis to lift / lower the printing table.

FDM printing will print materials in thin cut layers of materials. In order for the printer to work, the machine manufacturer must write a program for the boards, then the printer will execute the print job according to the loaded designs.

'The biggest revolution of 3D printers is the highly personalization of the products they create - Le Truong Son explained - In the past, these items would be very expensive or impossible to produce in the rules. small tissue '.

Dream of a machine from 300-500 USD

Many personal items can now be produced with 3D printers. The use of ABS or PLA plastic materials is mostly made of corn so it is very safe, so many companies are making use of this material to make children's products. Even with later printer versions, Son also 'prints' the device's devices on his own older printer versions.

Earlier this year, at Washington University in St. Louis Louis, the students 'printed' a plastic robotic arm for little Sydney Kendall, 13. This pink robot arm is priced at just $ 200 USD compared to the current market price of about $ 6,000.

Her mother, Beth Kendall, told the press: 'Now the price of plastic hands is very expensive and because of the constant growth of children, it will be expensive for them to have the latest hands . With 3D printers, This fake hand can be a lot cheaper. ' And the printer to print this arm costs about 2,500 USD.

Mr. Tran Binh Minh, director of the industrial design center of Viettel's R&D Institute, said that when talking with TTCT, his side bought an industrial 3D printer for USD 500,000.

'The machine has completely revolutionized our production process - Mr. Minh said - Product prototyping processes that used to take months or hours take only a few hours or days'. With R&D research, with manufacturing, this is a real big breakthrough. 'Our work has been easier and much faster'.

The application of 3D printers is very wide, especially in model design, toy design. Medical designs such as robot arms / legs, teeth . can be printed in 3D. There have even been studies to develop artificial parts like kidneys with 3D printers. In Italy, there is a company that makes 3D printers that can 'print' out from mud.

In the current market, there are a number of household 3D printers of MakerBot, Lulzbot, Solidoodle . with prices ranging from approximately 600 USD to several thousand USD. But according to experts, the type is really usable, the product has a high degree of fineness over 1,100 USD.

Son wants to produce printers at a cost of 300-500 USD / machine to be able to mass produce in the US and Vietnam. According to him, that price and with good quality, it could be a big revolution to bring printers to families.

'Then families can print anything they want. What they need is just the design of the product, ' he said.

When I went to Sơn's house in Gaithersburg, north of Washington DC, a room was requisitioned as a 3D printer lab. The 42x42x42cm printers are sprawled on the table and in the corner of the house. Son said he had experienced 4-5 different versions of the 3D printer and showed me printed products with complex designs and high smoothness.

'I have a new version every six months. The post-stability versions are higher, ' he said. Currently the largest object size that the machine can print is 20x20x20cm. This 3D version is one of the most convenient versions of printers on the market today.

It is a process that begins with curiosity when Son is attracted to the idea that a machine can produce whatever he wants. Technical people in general like you want a machine like that. Then, at Sơn's Brown School, there was a 3D printer in the lab.

In October 2012, nearly a year after knowing and paying attention to 3D printers, Son created the first 3D printer version on open source.

'When I have a machine in my hand, I can't live without it,' Son said to me. After the first version, the next race is self-creation.

In the design of the printer, the printer nozzle is considered complicated and is the most creative place.'Touching here, this is where there is a lot of land to develop. At that time I thought I could make the machine with a more reasonable price for the market. '

Compete with China

The online trade immediately put Son in direct competition with the eternal problems of the market: piracy. The chip that Son sent to Vietnam to produce after just over a week of selling on eBay (2-3 months since sending) was copied in its entirety and offered for sale at a cheaper price from a manufacturer. in China.

'I know it's my product very randomly. My original design was at fault so after the first trial production, I had to revise the design. When I looked at the other board, they had the same error - Son explained - I was completely unsure of the source design. '

The price competition is very fierce. When Sơn offered to sell a set of boards for $ 100, Chinese manufacturers sold for $ 80 for an identical design (after 2-3 months). When Son lowered the price to 80 USD for the price, immediately the price from China dropped to only 60 USD. The final price of Son dropped to 70 USD - a level he considered to be sufficiently profitable to reproduce.

'The competitiveness of Chinese goods is very high. It is a difficult game, very difficult, but a game I have to accept - Son said - They are too good at copying '. When I asked about copyright registration to deal, Son said developing 3D printers had a strong participation of the online community. This force develops and shares new designs and innovations.

'Everything starts from open source, so it's not advisable to embrace and design copyright and then register it,' said Son. He said he was willing to welcome others to use his design and not hide anything.

'The advantage of the company, the creator's, is to be creative, constantly creating, finding new things. The copy always goes after one or two versions'.

Six months ago, Sơn officially stopped selling board sets after more than 15 months of continuous sales. He said that selling interest is still very good at '30 -40% ' , but if focusing on sales, there is no time to develop a complete printer.

'Finally selling boards is not my main goal. I want to sell the complete printer, ' Son said. Two weeks ago, I contacted Son again and was told that he had finished nearly the new version and was about to run the test. Some potential investors contacted him and one agreed on the principle of investment.

Son said the printer will soon be completed for sale on Amazon and eBay in late November.

Born and raised in Ha Nam province, Son studied physics at Hanoi University of Technology and taught here before going to the United States in 2007 under a VEF scholarship to become a doctor in semiconductor physics at Brown University, a in the prestigious Ivy League schools of America in science.

Son is working at the National Institute of Technology Standards (NIST), specializing in making technology standards for resistors. In addition to his passion for applied science and always strong in experimentation, he is a 'believer' camping and sailing.

'I always thought I had to create something. I study experimental physics because of this - Son said - Solving equations is not what I want. ' In addition to the 3D printer, he wishes to once sail a boat from the US to Vietnam, like a double ocean crossing of a young doctor.