Orange Maker · since 2013

3D printing is the physical side of AI.

We invented rotational resin 3D printing. Now we’re delivering 10+ years of R&D and patents through partnerships, for the big missions, projects, companies and people who will build what comes next.

Partner with OM

What we believe

For decades the great leaps happened in software. The next ones happen in things you can hold.

Ideas want to be real

A design that stays on a screen is a promise. A part in your hand is proof.

Making is the hard part

Anyone can now create a model in minutes. Turning it into something that holds up is a question of light, material and motion.

Freedom to create

If it can be imagined, it should be possible to make it, close to home and by many hands.

The original

We invented rotational resin 3D printing.

Orange Maker was founded in 2011 by a small team of engineers and artists. Two years later we filed for heliolithography: stereolithography that combines UV light and rotation to build a part as one continuous spiral. We chose to keep refining it rather than rush it to market. The world has since caught up.

US PATENT 9,321,215

3D printing using spiral buildup

The founding patent for rotational spiral SLA

Priority: 12 Mar 2013
Issued: 26 Apr 2016
Inventor: Kurt Dudley
Assignee: Orange Maker

Today: 20+ issued patents in the US and key international territories.

The process

The part never stops moving.

Conventional resin printers cure a whole layer, peel it away, lift, wait for resin to flow back and repeat. Heliolithography cures a fixed strip of light while the part turns and rises, so it grows as one continuous spiral.

1
Light engineProjects UV light from below.
2
Cure zoneOne narrow radial strip, fixed in place.
3
RotationThe part turns through the strip without stopping.
4
Z riseIt climbs steadily, one spiral pitch per turn.
5
Resin flowEvery turn sweeps fresh resin into the zone.

LayersExpose, stop, peel, lift, recoat. Hundreds of times.

One spiralThe part turns and rises without stopping.

A strip, not a layer

The part is never peeled off as a full layer.

Low, steady separation force, so parts can grow larger.

Motion never stops

No expose, peel, lift and recoat cycle.

The light is always working.

Rotation moves the resin

Fresh material keeps arriving behind the strip.

Thick, filled and composite resins become printable.

Why now

The world had to catch up.

Printing for everyone depended on more than printing. Five things had to mature at once. They have.

PhotonicsHigh-power UV light engines became affordable.
MaterialsPhotopolymers reached engineering grade.
Scanning3D capture moved onto everyday devices.
Data and computeLarge models move and process in the cloud.
AIText and images become 3D models in minutes.

The thesis

AI designs it. OM makes it real.

Every design AI creates still has to become something you can hold. OM is the manufacturing platform that turns it into a real part, built on more than a decade of work with light, resin and motion.

Where it goes

One process, many hands.

We license the platform rather than build every machine ourselves. Partners take it where they know best.

Printer makers and print farms

Build rotational systems on the original patented process, then scale them into automated print farms that bring production back onshore.

Dental and medical

Personal devices, made close to the patient.

Defense and sustainment

Spare parts made at home, when and where they are needed.

Materials science

Formulations designed for a process that welcomes thick resins.

Repair and reuse

Keeping products in use instead of in landfill.

Skilled trades

American careers built around running and qualifying the platform.

Build with us

Let’s make what comes next.

Tell us your field

What you want to make, and for whom.

Explore the platform

A technical conversation with our team.

License it

Terms built around your application.

hello@orangemaker.com