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HUIZHOU, China, April 15, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Creality, a leading global 3D printer manufacturer, celebrated its 10th anniversary on April 9 in Huizhou, China, with exciting events and product launches. Themed as “A Decade and Beyond,” the milestone event not only commemorates years of achievements but also reaffirms Creality’s commitment to innovation and fostering a vibrant 3DP community worldwide. The […]
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The new Kit is Ultimaker’s first dedicated solution for 3D printing metal parts and was developed in collaboration with industry partners to be compatible with the Ultimaker S5 printer Ultimaker, the global leader in professional 3D printing, announced the extension of its Ultimaker Platform with a Metal Expansion Kit, making metal 3D printing more accessible and affordable. […]
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A new and exciting 3d printer is now available on kickstarter from bambu lab.
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Well, 2021 has come to a close. I am presently fighting the flu and a sinus infection, considering 2021 and 2020 it does not surprise me. I hope 2022 is a good one for all. We will continue to try and do reviews, beta testing especially in 3d printing-related technology, and drones amongst other techs. […]
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A 3D printer like no other. Intelligent. Simple. Affordable. Plybot is an interesting and innovative new 3d printer brought to Kickstarter by 3 intelligent and experienced folks in 3d printing. The founders are Brook Drumm the founder of Printrbot, Ian Wielding from Hangar 75–>http://www.hangar75.com/ Finally, 3d printer visionary. UK Young Engineer of the Year and […]
In the past few months the world has seen the power of 3D printing in action. As Covid-19 continues to disrupt and overwhelm global supply chains the 3D printing community has stepped in to fill the gaps with masks, face shields, swabs, ventilator parts, and more. The importance of local and on-demand manufacturing has never been more clear.
Imagine if every small business, college, hospital, or fortune 500 company had just one 3D printer? Of five of them? Just imagine the impact this would have. It’s time for all industries to get involved with 3D printing. It’s time to establish your own manufacturing plant. Your own print farm. Your own creative space. It’s time for you to get the essential office machine.
We are proud to introduce our new F1 3D Printer and line of F-Series accessories. It’s where high performance meets incredible value. We did our best to infuse the F1 with best-in-class safety, print quality, and reliability. It’s also the most affordable industrial grade 3D printer we have ever built. We also did our best to design much needed accessories that work with nearly all 3D printers on the market today.
NOTE: just to be clear, the F1 printer does not come with an F-BOX, F-PAC, or F-FLEX, these must be added to your pledge. See the FAQ.
Note: F1 printers do not include the F-BOX, F-PAC, or F-FLEX accessories, even though it’s shown in the photo. The F1 reward tiers correctly list the items that are included with the F1.
We take safety very seriously because we know where our F1 printers are going to end up: at hospitals, business offices, schools, research labs, shop floors, college dorm rooms, and of course, people’s homes. We all know that 3D printers are run overnight, and sometimes for days on end. We also know that many users run their printers unattended. That’s why we built a printer with unmatched safety features.
Advanced thermal runaway protection. What’s thermal runaway? Basically, it’s when your hot end keeps heating up and wont shut down until you cut the power. This can happen if your controller board fails, the temp sensor fails, the temp sensor gets dislodged from the heater block, or your firmware freezes and fails to reset.
Most printers on the market today only rely on firmware to protect against thermal runaway. Software is not good enough. To make matters worse a lot of cheap printers didn’t even enable these basic software protections, even though they are built into the firmware. In the vast majority of cases firmware protection works well at protecting you. However, no firmware is going to protect you if it crashes or if you experience a controller board or temp sensor failure.
The F1 solution. That’s why the F1 incorporates redundant specialty electronic power cut-off circuits. These specialty circuits are completely independent from the firmware or other software controls. In other words, a bad transistor or crashed firmware is not going to prevent the specialty safety circuit from doing its job. The F1 also uses two temp sensors for added security. That’s right, two temp inputs, and each input is run through it’s own specialty circuit. If the circuit reads a temp higher than 325 C it will cut the power to your hot end. Please see the illustration below.
Better temp sensors, mounted better. The F1 uses PT100 temperature sensors made from Platinum, so they are extremely reliable. Furthermore, we designed our hot end to specifically prevent the temp sensors from dislodging during use. First, we use TWO temp sensors to add redundancy, as mentioned above. Second, we use multiple fastening points to retain the sensors. Third, our temp sensors are potted into metal cartridges, which allows us to attach them more securely. Finally, we engineered the cable management of the hot end wires to further prevent the sensors from coming loose.
Special hot end heat break and heat sink. We also use a special Bi-Metallic heat break sourced from Slice Engineering to keep the heat in the heater block instead of migrating upward into the rest of the hot end assembly. Not only does this improve the printing process, it makes the hot end safer overall. Finally, we designed our own heat sink to bleed off any excess heat that rises from the heat break.
The filament drive and hot end mount uses UL approved flame retardant materials for an extra level of safety. The hot end heat sink and heat break were designed to bleed off the heat before it can rise and damage the other components on the print head.
Insulated and guarded heater block. The stainless steel guard around the heater block helps reduce severe burning. It still gets very hot, so be careful!
All connectors are genuine MOLEX brand, not some cheap offshore knockoff found on many 3D printers. Moreover, we selected connectors that are rated to carry at least double the circuits required amperage. If that wasn’t enough, we only use glow wire rated connector housings. This means that if you take a hot iron (the glow wire) and pushed it into the connector, the connector would just melt instead of burning up.
Special Z rod guards protect your hair and fingers from getting pinched or wrapped up. Each Z Axis lead screw gets its own guard. This also keeps the lead screws cleaner and reduces maintenance.
Advanced firmware. The F1 uses a modular firmware by Repetier that includes the standard thermal runaway protections found in other firmwares, but it also includes a watchdog system that helps identify firmware crashes. If a crash is detected it resets the printer to rectify the situation.
How do we achieve best-in-class print quality? We do it by getting rid of resonance, zero crossing moire patterns, ringing, z wobble, thermal banding, and other artifacts that show up in your prints. Oh, how did we do that? Now that’s where it gets complicated! It involved engineering, proper selection of components, and lot’s of testing. Here’s a few examples.
Engineering
We started by making the F1 frame and gantry system as strong and rigid as we could. The frame is then perfectly squared during assembly, and will stay that way for the life of the printer (unless you drop it off your desk onto a concrete floor!). Next, we engineered a simple but effective chassis dampening system using visco-elastic polymer because it has a very high dampening coefficient. It combines shock absorption, good memory, vibration isolation and vibration damping characteristics. Cheap rubber feet would have saved us a lot of money, but that’s not what the F1 is about.
Next, we designed the best filament drive and hot end we could. Our filament drive uses our special filament drive gears and gear reduction design for increased power and precision. The drive gears are hardened steel and the reduction gears are stainless steel, not plastic. The F1 hot end is all metal and carbon fiber ready. The key to making a high performance hot end that works with a large spectrum of filament types is to use a heat break that has the highest temp gradient you can find.
Accuracy
3D printing is about more than just creating “perfect” and pretty looking prints. Best-in-class print quality is also about parts that are accurate, and fit together. Parts that have sharp corners and no over extrusion.
The F1’s firmware incorporates a hot end pressure balancing feature that reduces the extruder movement precisely as needed before the hot end reaches any portion of the part that slows down. This allows the pressure inside the hot end to release and do the extruding instead of the filament drive. It’s clever and it works great. In fact, the F1 doesn’t require any slicer tricks, like coasting or wiping (combing).
Here is an example of the quality you can expect from your new F1. Most of these prints are just stunning, and big credit goes to the following designers: Fotis Mint, Clockspring3D, Wekster, Daniel Noree, 3Dprintlab, and Sid Naique. We’ll have full credits and high res photos for these designers up on our website soon.
This model by clockspring3d is a great example of what print-in-place looks like.
This is varioshore filament from colorFabb. You can change the level of softness by changing the temperature. This part is all the same filament!
It starts with engineering and ends with the selection of premium components and high quality manufacturing.
Better by design.
We all know that hot ends jam for a variety of reasons. The cause is usually wet filament, improper retract settings, bad temp settings, poor quality filament (bad diameter tolerance or debris in the filament) and bad hot end engineering. Oh, leaving the hot end idle at full temp for a few hours is another great way to jam your hot end! If you’re like us you’re not perfect, that’s why the F1 hot end can be changed in seconds. This makes it fast and easy to change nozzles too.
Premium Components
Lets take a close look at the 600 watt power supply built by Artesyn. The price of this key component is over $250. Heck, you can buy an entire offshore 3D printer for this price! So why do we use a premium power supply instead of one we can source offshore for 25 dollars, or less? Reliability and performance and safety. Our power supply incorporates PFC (power factor correction) which ensures that input voltage and current waveforms are as sinusoidal as possible. Besides, PFC is required by international regulations. Cheap power supplies don’t use PFC and are not as reliable. Our power supply carries a 2 year warranty and should run for many years under normal use.
Another example is our Vanadium nozzles made by Slice Engineering. These high speed steel nozzles are alloyed with Vanadium (increases strength and hardness) and then hardened to 65 Rockwell C. They cost over 30 dollars and imported nozzles cost less than 2. You get what you pay for. Slice nozzles carry a lifetime warranty against abrasion, and cheap nozzles wont last one roll of carbon fiber filament. We want you to swap nozzles to change your extrusion widths, not because they’re worn out.
We built the F1 for every type of business, school, or organization. It’s a true industrial grade printer, so this means it’s perfect for work groups big and small. It’s also ideal for print farms and maker spaces. The F1 is a high performance printer with advanced safety features. This means it’s safe enough for hospitals, research labs, schools, offices, and of course, your home.
We partnered with BuildTak to manufacture our custom printed PEI and Polycarbonate bed sheets and flex plate system for two reasons. First, they know what they’re doing. They are also a print shop, so they know how to produce high quality prints. Second, they make their products in the USA, and they don’t use cheap offshore components. Again, it’s not the cheapest way to make a 3D printer, just the best. The F1 comes with a single steel flex plate, a mag base, and one sheet each of the PEI and PC. The black sheet is genuine Garolite and works amazingly well for nylon, sold separately. The PEI sheet has easier part release for a wider range of materials, but doesn’t hold has tight as the original PC sheet, especially when using PLA, PC, and PETG.
We scored 28 out of 30. If you’re getting a lot of stringing between the spires it probably means that your filament needs to be dried (and/or your retract and esteps are incorrect). Here’s how we scored it. Go here for more info on this test.
Step one for any new product starts as an inspiration, filling of a need, and filling of a demand. And then we sketch the product, the market, the features, etc. In other words, we make more of a story board than a pure sketch. It gave us a road map before we started the CAD modelling stages. As soon as we started to generate CAD models we began to test.
Here we’re discussing the relationships between our key verticals and feature set. It’s super important to understand what the market demand is so you can deliver on the final product. Below is the final CAD model we used for the printers you see in the video.
We usually begin by building discrete sub assemblies and important components, like the F1 Y axis (print bed) assembly shown below. The F1 uses a special 80mm wide extrusion for the Y axis, or moving print bed. This gives it rock solid stability so your prints come out accurate and looking fantastic.
T
The frames are now complete.
And then we keep adding more and more components until we’re getting close to a finished prototype. We use advanced prototyping shops for metal, CNC, 3D printing (including a lot of prints on our own fleet of 3D printers), and fabrication. We like to have prototypes that VERY closely relate to the final product. This type of prototyping style costs more up front, but saves you a TON of headaches later when you’re into production of your first units. It just helps eliminate the inevitable surprises!
We went through a number of filament drive iterations until we finally settled on design shown on the bottom of this photo. We’re especially proud of our filament drive because it’s just so reliable, and so strong, and so light. It integrates the following components into a single 3D printed production part.
No matter what printer you own or what type of printing you do, we all want stronger, better looking, and more reliable 3D prints. It’s why we spend our money on top quality printers, filament, and other performance upgrades like better nozzles.
But there is one performance upgrade that is better than all the rest combined. This upgrade is guaranteed to make your prints stronger and better looking, and this upgrade works on any 3D printer. And it’s really affordable.
It’s called dry filament!
No question about it, dry filament makes your prints stronger, better looking, and the printing process more reliable. The problem is that there is no easy and quick way to dry your filament, and keep it that way while you’re printing. If there was we would all be doing it. The current ways of doing it are just not very convenient, compact, and effective.
The F-BOX works with ALL 3D printers (that use filament of course!). We already have designed custom mounting brackets for most popular printers. CAD files and STL modes will be available on our website by the time this product ships. Or, simply feed your filament from the desktop, as shown above. Use the PTFE guide tube that comes with every F-BOX.
WHY WE NEED TO USE DRY FILAMENT
Nobody likes ugly prints with a poor surface finish, so for this reason alone you should be drying your filament, but there are two more important reasons.
First, dry filament produces much stronger parts. You dry your filament to prevent polymer chain degradation, known as hydrolysis. Hydrolysis leads to really weak parts. The strength of your filament is derived from long chains of polymers. When humidity gets into your filament it acts like a knife, cutting up the long polymer chains into much shorter ones.
Once your filament is dry you need to keep it this way at all times, before, during, and after the printing process is complete. In other words, drying your filament is good, but if you don’t dispense it from a dry box it will pick up new moisture in as little as 15 minutes. Also, don’t expect your filament to be dry from the factory. It’s not even close. Polyethylene bags are not impervious to air moisture.
What size spools does it fit?
1 Kg spools and smaller
Benefits
Features
Note: the F-BOX comes with TWO desiccant packs, not three as shown in some photos.
The design
We spent months perfecting the design of the F-BOX. There’s a lot more to this product than meets the eye. Take the spool post, it snaps into the main housing and has two special seals to keep out the elements, while allowing your filament to effortlessly unspool. The lid has four latches to ensure a proper seal. The high quality fitting has dual o-rings to create a perfect seal. The feet allow the boxes to stack and nest. Finally, the exclusive square thru hole allows the F-BOX to be mounted directly on your printer.
As you can see our first model was, how should we say, a start? It was a bit too big and clumsy. By model two we were off to the races and our final iteration proved to be everything we wanted. Along the way we went through MANY iterations of the feet, latches, and center post, not to mention the gasket types, sizes, etc. There is a lot more to this product than meets the eye.
We combined our F-BOX, F-PAC, and F-Flex into the Essential Accessory Kit.
Removing prints from the build plate is an essential aspect to 3D printing in general. Even with modern “flex” plates, like those on the F1 and many other printers, the preferred method is still the scraper, especially for smaller parts.
The problem with using a putty knife is the blade is too thick, the edge too dull, and the corners to sharp. We designed the F-FLEX to solve these problems.
First, we designed the blade with just the right amount of flex. Second, we made the blade incredibly thin and sharp, very sharp. Third, we gave the blade special rounded edges to prevent it from digging into your build plate. Fourth, we fitted it with an ergonomic soft grip handle. Finally, a striking cap in the handle will allow you to “knock-off” your models.
We can’t stress this point enough, THIS BLADE IS EXTREMELY SHARP! So please be careful and do not let children use this product. Always keep your hands behind the blade in case your print suddenly breaks loose.
We know that most users store their opened spools of filament in big airtight containers, like these. It’s simple, effective, and affordable. Just make sure you’re using ones with foam gaskets for the best performance. It’s surprising how long your filament will stay dry in these boxes if you use enough desiccant. That’s why we designed the F-PAC.
WHAT IS IT?
The F-PAC is a custom designed high capacity desiccant pack used for keeping your filament dry. Contains approximately 2.5 lbs (1130 grams) of desiccant.
WHAT SIZE CONTAINER DOES IT FIT?
It fits virtually EVERY container on the market today. Use one F-PAC for 5 -10 gallon containers, and more for larger ones.The size of the F-PAC is about the same size as a spool of filament.
WHAT DOES IT DO?
The F-PAC is a high performance molecular sieve. It absorbs moisture from the air.
FEATURES
• High performance desiccant
• Color changing desiccant to let you know when a recharge is necessary, the orange color is NOT a hazardous substance (the blue desiccant contains cobalt, and is hazardous).
• Recharge your desiccant over and over and over, great value.
MISCELLANEOUS
We thought long and hard about how we were going to keep everyone safe in our office. Of course the first thing we did was have everyone wear a mask during the entire shoot, except for some on camera work. We also limited the number of team members present at the shoot to just a small handful. Finally, we opened all the doors and windows and we used a number of portable HEPA air filtration units. The good news is that nobody got sick and we are all extremely grateful for that.
For us this was an easy decision. First, this is our third campaign, so we have come to really value our backers on this platform. Second, Kickstarter is a fantastic platform to let the world know about your new ideas. Finally, most trade shows have been canceled for 2020 and this limited our reach. Getting early backers is so crucial to these types of products, because they take a huge amount of up front cash for molds and inventories. It’s backers like you that really make a difference in the world. Without you a lot of products would simply never see the light of day, even from established companies. Thank you for your support Kickstarter!
We are really impressed by the printer at least via the videos and photos and the company. The design specifications and promised capabilities are impressive too. We backed the accessories since they are in the budget. If we had the funds we would back the kickstarter without a doubt or hesitation!
Happy 4th of July to all from David with Technewszone.com! I am a tech blogger, love 3d printing and drones and other tech too. I am an Army Veteran and father of 3 with Autism too. I am an aspie too. I am an AEPi alumni as well and a UNLV alumni.
We will have 3d printing reviews and other tech reviews up soon!
I hope everyone has a great weekend and holiday!
We have been on the web since January 11, 2011!
Please check us out on youtube–Http://www.youtube.com/Technewszone
SparkMaker
Introduces the most affordable one-button desktop SLA 3D printer Simple, affordable, 3D Printing is now available to anyone thanks to SparkMaker.
The company has announced the release of their one-button desktop 3D Printer that brings the quality of SLA printing to the masses. Now anyone, with a computer and a spark of creativity can unlock the magic of 3D printing. Although 3D Printing has been popular for several years, the hardware has been expensive preventing many from exploring the endless creative possibilities it allows. Adding to that, complicated design software and 3D modeling experience was a prerequisite to working in 3D. SparkMaker changes everything, with one-button print simplicity, easy load multi-color resins, and print-ready downloadable designs. They have created a system so simple and effective that anyone can begin 3D printing in only a few moments. It’s as easy as downloading a free design to an SD card, inserting it into SparkMaker and pressing the button. We recognized that many people would love to explore the fun and creativity of 3D Printing but from our years of experience in the industry, we knew that people were discouraged by the high price of the hardware and the complexity of the process. Our goal was to eliminate both and with SparkMaker we have done so. Martin, CEO & Co-Founder, SparkMaker. After putting together a team of experts, Martin and team used their experience and know-how in the 3D Printing industry to create a product that was simple, effective and affordable enough for home or office use. In fact, SparkMaker is putting the power of 3D Printing into the hands of their users for less than $100 dollars, a remarkable feat considering the technology and superior printing quality of the device. In spite of the low price, the SparkMaker is not short on quality, in fact it is the first affordable desktop printer to use the advanced SLA printing method. SLA is a method of selectively applying a laser to photo reactive liquid resin on a work area, forming very thin solid layers that stack up to create one solid 3D object. SLA is superior to the typical FDM printing method. In FDM printing, resolution is a factor of the nozzle size and the precision of the extruder movements. This fast printing method is prone to errors and inaccuracies which results in blocky, rough, edges. In contrast, SLA creates smoothly curving, natural contours that result in incredibly precise finished 3D models that have a greater resolution and better accuracy than the FDM method. SLA is preferred by advanced modelers and artists and it’s perfect for any task from arts and crafts to prototyping and small production runs.To begin pre-sales and offer special incentives to early adopters SparkMaker is launching a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter with early adopter pricing as low as $100 USD. Learn more here: https://www.ogadget.com/x/sparkmaker Summary: SparkMaker creates the first affordable SLA quality 3D Desktop Printer.
We are using ProMolt 3D filament on an Orion Delta 3D printer to bring learning to life to those with educational disabilities.We recently received 3 other printers to help our efforts and review.
We have a Hatchbox 3d Alpha:
A Upbox Mini 2:
and a Wanhao I3 Plus:
and a Afinibot A5!
If anyone want us to do a free or for donation event in Southern Nevada please let me know.
Please help us to make a difference!
Donation!
We are rather impressed by the new Cetus 3d Printer.
We have been talking with their team on social channels and may get one to test, review and do some videos on.
If we do get one will use it to help our educational and autism events and programs too!
Link to Cetus3d
Specifications:
Printer dimensions: 265 x 275 x 265 mm
Print volume: 180 x 180 x 180 mm
Layer thickness: 0.05 – 0.35 mm
Platform leveling: Manual alignment, software-assisted leveling
Operating systems: Windows 7/8/10, Mac
Print technology: Melted extrusion modeling (MEM)
Material: Designed for PLA but open to other materials
All three axes are controlled with high-quality linear bearings that the start-up maintains provides excellent print quality. It comes with a self-levelling bed and it’s also virtually silent.
Despite its minimalism, there’s a lot that the Cetus can do. It offers three different fast-change nozzle size options of 0.2, 0.4 and 0.6 mm, and a specially designed adhesive coating allows for good first layer adhesion along with easy print removal. It’s pre-calibrated and can be used right out of the box via either USB or Wi-Fi, and its bundled Cetus Software (also available as an iOS app) offers 2D to 3D conversion, blackout recovery and automatic support generation.
The device allows wireless access as well–>
We are looking forward to it being on Kickstarter and will update this article soon!
Link to Cetus3d
