I am currently setting up a laboratory on a limited budget at a SLAC, and I was looking to have a commonly employed, i.e., commercially available bioprinter in my lab space. Does anyone have experience with the economic options from ALLEVI (1/2) and/or CELLINK (Inkredible/Inkredible+)? I use mostly collagen and hyaluronic acid for stem cell vascular tissue engineering. Cost and modularity are my two most important considerations.
I've worked with Cellink, BioX model is really intuitive and has nice biosafety features.
I haven't worked with Allevi bioprinters so I cannot comment on their product. However, we had Inkredible and BioX printers from Cellink in our labs. Inkredible offers you the basic functionalities at a low cost, but I am not sure about the modularity at the moment, because the company is pushing their BioX line much stronger and I wouldn't expect them to have extensive support/offers for the older generation. BioX printers are good to have as a standalone system, especially for the beginners and those who don't want to deal with hardware development issues, however in my opinion they are really expensive for what they offer. To some extent, they also offer good modules for different functionalities, but I personally found them overpriced, and we are talking about something like four digit figures for a simple heating unit. If you have access to a good workshop in your department to add some custom-made, DIY features such as heaters or dispensing units, I suggest going for older generation Inkredible as they are cheap and do the job fairly.
I could not say much for any brand of bioprinters as each of them has its own pros and cons depending on your final purposes. To my knowledge from my collaborator's Allevi, in term of cost Allevi more affordable and adjustable for any modifiability of your bioinks etc. But at last, both of those brands could print your end-product at your desired designs. Best of luck!
Cody O'Keefe Crosby, I have bought the CellInk Inkredible (really Inkredible?) more than 1.5 year ago.
Until now, the printer work fine as long as you used the pre-loaded structure (gcode) provide by Cellink.
The huge problem start when you want to customize your object, print your own structure (with 1 or 2 extruder). The provided Cellink Python file, 'Postprocessor' , is full of bug. Such as their suggested configuration for the Repetier and Slicer software. Have a quick look online, and you will see that some people already mentionned it, reported that, And tried to find solution. Unfortunately, Cellink service are non efficient, and turn out to be helpless - absolutely non supportive. Depite the price of the printer ! I still do not understand why, they could not fix.
I know, that our national reseller (Germany , But not anymore official reseller), did try to solve that problem with them (due to many customers complains), but after many call, emails, they did not received any help. What to do? Fix things yourself. Check Python, learn all command code for the gcode, how to improve them ... But in the end, this is not what you expect when spending more than 12kEuros in their (inkredible) printer.
As Ali Nadernezhad mentioned, I also think that they are pushing their other products, which might 'explain' the lack of support.
Despite this problem, the Cellink printer work fine, and we are happy with it.
I do not know the printer from Allevi ... So can not say anything on this.
I have worked with Cellink printers and they work great for printing hydrogels. I have worked on all their models and looks like they meet your need perfectly.
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