About Apex Invent
Founded in the early months of 2023, Apex Invent was born out of a passion for 3D printing and a want to create a distinctively South African 3D printer. Our journey has been a dynamic one, marked by both triumphs in terms of development and other more severe challenges, leading us to a strategic reimagining of our core business and mission leading us to a much-needed restart to our endeavor, free from any 3rd party involvement.
At the heart of Apex Invent lies a commitment to openness and collaboration. Every development we achieve is now proudly open source, offering our community a source of pride. While our core development and open source initiative is currently a one-person endeavor, our vision is to transform this into a thriving community effort.
Our Online Store exists to keep our developments alive, and we aim to make it your one-stop shop for anything you will need to build a Apex Machine all locally in South Africa.
Apex Invent is not just a company; it’s a collaborative space where innovation meets community spirit. Join us as we continue to push the boundaries of 3D printing technology, proudly shaping the future of additive manufacturing in South Africa.
Here’s to innovation, openness, and community - welcome to Apex Invent!
Motion Systems
All Apex Invent machines are CoreXY systems apart from the CNC machines as it has proven to be the most efficient way to achieve higher accelerations and speed with the given moving mass. Apex Invent machines are designed with budget and configuration in mind, allowing users to build a basic machine using Linear rods and lower-end components while allowing them to upgrade to higher-end configurations down the line.
Frames
We use standard locally available extrusions for all of our machines, these include PG20, PG30, PG40, and PG60 series aluminium extrusions.
Klipper
All Apex Invent Machines apart from the CNCs use Klipper firmware. Klipper uses a more powerful computer such as a Raspberry Pi for all the computation-heavy tasks and sends a list of preprocessed orders to the controller board. This gives a considerable amount of flexibility as a variety of control boards (or a combination of boards) can be easily configured. Also, more complex features such as input shaping (to reduce ringing) can be added no matter what control board is used. Finally, configuring firmware is fast and easy. Change to your desired parameter in an easy-to-read printer configuration file, save, and restart Klipper–a few seconds later the printer is ready to go!
Serial Numbers
To get your own serial number, all you have to do after completing an Apex Invent build is to post a video of your printer printing on the Apex Invent Discord. Be sure to have your machine fully built and assembled - All electronics should be closed and wires should be neat, your machine should be safe!