Jiří Erban & BlackPrint: Custom Printing Demands Reliable Machines
When you enter Jiří Erban’s BlackPrint 3D custom printing workshop, you’ll know it right away: Shelves full of 3D prints run all along its walls. They’re full of black silencers, sheets, stands, stocks, and other equipment for airsoft pistols and guns.
Jiří Erban’s road to 3D printing began in 2015. But his first printer very quickly stopped being enough for his needs, and so he tried another one, a currently widespread hobby model from a well-known manufacturer. But as he soon found out, this too was a less than ideal solution. Since most of his models are narrow and tall, traditional 3D printers didn’t suit him. “I was looking for something where the model moves only minimally or not at all, because any motion by the bed with the model is reflected negatively in the final quality. After a bit of searching, I encountered TRILAB with its delta printers, and my mind was made up.” TRILAB also supplied Jiří with a specially extended-height version of our TRILAB DeltiX printer that can produce prints up to 42 cm high.
Repairs and manufacturing for airsoft weapon components are among BlackPrint’s typical orders. These weapons’ original plastics are certainly tough, but the treatment they get in the heat of battle is sometimes even tougher.
“What I usually then do is work from a part that’s sent in or from a photo and measured dimensions. When I’m producing a replacement part, I also try to eliminate the model’s weak points, and as a result the replacement is often even sturdier than the original,” Erban adds.
Meanwhile specially designed custom accessories are their own separate and growing chapter within BlackPrint’s 3D printing story. People often request custom printing of handguards, silencers, or grips for their weapons, or sometimes various stands for airsoft arsenals.
What Jiří Erban praises about his two TRILAB printers is their exceptional print-space height and the high surface quality for printed models: “Each imperfection and mistake reduces a product’s value, and so it’s extremely important for me that every layer be the same. The stable printing bed and light head on a DeltiQ are absolutely unbeatable in this respect.” Prints generally last for several days, during which the printers run reliably and entirely without supervision.
