The Ethereal Machines Halo, a 3D printer and milling machine that operates on 5-axes, is a CES 2018 Best of Innovation Honoree in the category of 3D printing.

Seemingly out of nowhere Ethereal Machines, a Bangalore, India, startup has magicked a pretty cool concept machine for hybrid additive/subtractive manufacturing. Touted as “the dawn of hybrid manufacturing“, Ethereal Machines’ Halo is a 5-axis milling and 3D printing machine.

The company threw its hat into the ring for the CES Innovation Awards not expecting anything of it. Instead, Ethereal Machines’ name now carries the Honoree badge for the 3D Printing category.

Speaking to Gadgets360, Kaushik Mudda, co-founder of Ethereal Machines, explains a little of the subtractive-only background behind the Halo.

“All our earlier products were 3-axis machines. After building a sustainable business we wanted to up the ante to make a desktop scale 5-axis CNC machine. The existing ones were all really huge, and really costly, so we thought this was a good challenge.”

With a team successfully outputting proprietary code to make 5-axis machining work, the company tried its hand at additive manufacturing using the system. The result is a mind-bending 3D printing-milling machine that’s enthralling to see in action. Check the video below if you don’t believe us.

Is it Real? The Ethereal Machines Halo

Occupying the form factor of a large workbench machine, the Halo’s party trick comes from the way it pokes into difficult corners on the things it prints/mills. Rather than moving the tool head on 5-axes to build up/etch away at its work, it is the object itself — fixed on the build plate — that does all the moving.

The Halo’s rotating circular print bed is attached to a base that also rotates perpendicular to the bed’s axis. This assembly also moves in its entirety on the X,Y and Z axes. Basically, we’d liken it to a lathe that moves in three dimensions, except that the Halo can also use a 3D printing tool head to fabricate objects too.

Eliminating Z-seam weaknesses by simply not extruding in such a uniform way (as also demonstrated by the Verashape printer we recently reported on), the Ethereal Machines Halo would also do away with the need for supports on complicated prints.

Add to this the means to combine methods by 3D printing onto milled parts, and you have the makings of a pretty exciting hybrid machine.

With a name as otherworldly as Ethereal Machines, you’d be forgiven for thinking this isn’t going to happen. But, with a proven track record supplying CNC milling machines to clients and attendance confirmed to demo the Halo at CES 2018 (booth 9503, North Hall), we’ll be keeping an optimistic eye out for the company.

The Consumer Electronics Show takes place in Las Vegas, January 9-12, 2018.

Source: Gadgets360