Speculation about new printer announcements

I think we’ll see a slew of new printers announced over the next couple of months, because from there they rush to finish development and produce enough units for the winter holiday market.

I’m really looking forward to seeing them launched and tested…so I may have relevant info for decision making on which one will come my way by the end of the year

yep X-max3 It’s 799EUR minus 5% for subscription so It was 759 for the printer got myself some extras like a upgraded bi-metal hotend an extra 0.6 nozzle some filaments and an extra EMMC 32GB for 19Eur that has the factory OS pre installed if I accidentally update klipper and brick my printer I just swap the EMMC cheapest solution if I ever be dumb enough to do it. I have a UPS in case of power outage can run printer for about 30mins should be enough for power to come back and also a C920pro cam that I can use with Klipper and I as I sad building a ZeroG mercury one with 350x350x400 with klipper everything from zero to Hero and till I get that to work properly I hava large volume printer at hand also I got my Qidi X-max3 and Uniformation Gktwo at the price of an X1CAMS combo. I think that’s a win if they work as on the paper :slight_smile:

Do keep us updated on how it runs.

okey should arrive in 5-10 days I will set It up and give you my first impressions and do a print with their PLA “rapido”

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@claymore1984 If you can tolerate a small build volume, then for around $2K there’s a printer that can print all the engineering filaments, including PEEK. IIRC, it’s something like the A1 mini’s build volume though. Unfortunate, I know.

I’d bet this sales event is likely a clearance event getting ready for the new offerings. I’d guess July-August is when we’ll see the new release.

Creality looks to have a hardware match for anything I would be expecting Bambu to put out, but I’m not sure hardware is going to be the differentiator this cycle. Of course, an IDEX/multi-head printer changes that thinking (as they loosely suggested could be coming in some of their press).

Hi, my minimum volume would be 250 cube at-least an the most technical material would be PA CF GF mixes I wanna use it for RC vehicle parts I don’t really need peek altough im interested what’s the printer you mentioned as I last checked PEEK should be printed around 350-400C hotend a 140C chamber temp and a 120C -ish bed (not to mentioned the price is way off for hobby use for 1Kg I could buy a whole RC car :slight_smile: and IIRC I haven’t really come across a filament named like this and a short google search only mentioned to forget it with consumer printers.

Most likely too small for you. I look at it as more of an existence proof: not that you need to print PEEK, but if you can, you can probably print anything.

See directly above your post.

When I posted, I noticed you did the Jedi trick and answered my question.
I always get doubt when I see these printers stating the ability to print PEEK with a chamber temperature of 70ºC.

Isn’t this PEKK and not PEEK? Or I need to update my know-how. I learned that PEKK has a lower glass transition temperature than PEEK; thus, it is possible to print at lower chamber temperatures.

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I provided the link. It answers your question. I’m not going to copy-paste what it says there back to here.

You now know as much as I do. I don’t own one. I’m not affiliated with it. I simply came across it when I was searching for a 3D printer that could print technical filaments beyond the reach of the X1C. Like I say, the build volume is disappointingly small. If it weren’t, I might have bought one. If you can print at those temps at a large enough volume, then it’s maybe the last 3D printer you would ever need to buy–or at least for a long time. I think there may (?) be some at the $3k range that might qualify, but it’s been a while since I last looked. $3k isn’t that far beyond the price of the X1E that it’s not something many might be interested in. A fully outfitted Prusa XL is something like $6k+, or maybe was–it’s been a while since I’ve check on that as well, but it’s targeting something else entirely. Just saying, those prices may be nose bleed for most hobbyists, but $2K is fast becoming the old $1k, if you know what I mean.

Thanks. I knew the printer and read the specs.
They claim it is PEEK. However, it’s false. Otherwise, I misunderstood the terminology.

For me, PEEK has glass transitions of around 300ºC (maybe slightly lower or higher), so successfully printing it with a chamber temperature of 70ºC is a miracle, as it will contract severely.
On the other hand, PEKK has a lower crystallization temperature, which makes it possible to print with lower chamber temperatures. Still, it comes at the expense of lower thermal and chemical proprieties unless you do some intensive annealing afterwards. It seems related to the low temperature, which will not allow crystalizing during printing.

Edit: I also want to print PEEK at home one day, even if I don’t need it. The printer size is limitative, but for me, the worst is not being able to print PEEK. I never found any desktop printer with the right chamber and extruder temperatures. That would be the first step.

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Well, then, congratulations, you may have just fingered its fatal flaw, whereas I was merely taking their claim at face value. If that’s case, I wonder how they manage to sell any all? Just how hot does the chamber need to be?

The guys at vision miner say that most of their customers come to them wanting to print PEEK, but after consulting they say in the end that they usually don’t need to go to that extreme. I was just looking at PEEK as a capability benchmark. There may well be lesser capability levels that are just as good. I practice what computer scientists call “lazy evaluation,” meaning I don’t typically dig in unless there’s a reason to, and at least so far, most of the machines have seemed out of reach, so to date I’ve never had a reason to.

Edit: stepper motors with insulation class H are rated to 180C, so in principle, I’d expect a heated chamber could be constructed to work somewhere up to 180C without getting too exotic, though I suppose the practical limit might be lower since you need to dissipate the heat generated within the stepper motor itself. So, you might go to liquid cooling next. Still, none of that seems super exotic by itself. Even gamers build liquid cooled desktop PC’s to dissipate those kinds of thermals.

What I think would be very cool, however, would be to both print and anneal all in one step, and that could be achievable for even more mundane filaments like PET-CF. So, there’s a lot that could be developed within much easier reach that just hasn’t yet. The current chamber limits of 60C is artificially low because the stepper motors spec’d are just cheap off the shelf steppers, whereas it would be easy enough (drop-in, I would think) to upgrade to class H steppers, provided the wiring also had sufficient ampacity to handle the heat and current. Heck, even just upgrading to 48v to drive the steppers would add a lot more punch. There’s so much yet to be done that’s within easy reach.

Good question. That’s why it would be interesting to have a commercial desktop model to make it work.
The chamber temperatures are around 300ºC at the industrial level and go even higher. However, never dig into the components specs, such as steppers, as the budget and space constraints will not permit such adventure.
Not only do they need to be high-end steppers, but they also need to include proper good thermal insulation from the chamber and an effective heat dissipation system.

I was not expecting you to dig into the details; I am more interested in understanding if I am missing something or if it is just another marketing strategy.

I understand completely. At a mundane level, I cannot see so many applications.
As mentioned, I’ve no practical need for PEEK; for everything I could need PEEK, such as automobile components, I would prefer to be safer and likely save money by buying original components from manufacturers. As a researcher, I still haven’t found an application to move from metal to PEEK, but I bet the time will come. Again, even if I had a printer able to print PEEK, I would prefer ordering from a company and avoiding any responsibility if things go wrong.
Nevertheless, it is mentioned as the highest standard in 3D printing materials and one of the most challenging to print, and I like challenges - just that.

I think that happens with the PEEK (high-temperature one). The crystallization process occurs during the 3D print process.

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PEEK still needs annealing to reach maximum strength. It actually has a different color when it not fully annealed.

Also, I believe most PEEK’s glass transition temps are closer to 140C, so you’d want to be fairly close to that in chamber temps, but there aren’t many printers that can do that. Printers in the 90-120C chamber range is probably the norm and should be usable for PEEK/PEKK.

Honestly, PEEK is probably not the best filament for most applications. PEKK has really become popular. It’s easier to print, very close in strength, and a little cheaper. Also uses slightly lower print temps. I’m not a high temp guy, so there could be a newer better material out there. But if you are really thinking about using one of the uber filaments, either of these (PEEK or PEKK) are great but the CF versions of them makes printing much easier (but I wouldn’t call it easy though).

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Just srumbed across a reddit post about Bambu Stufion havig added some peinter info flags about is_supports_p1s_plus or something to that effect. Lookig theough the code it seems to sugest some kid of add on that woud enable a1 style auto calibration for the P1 series. Any thoughts?

share the link where you found this

The forrum didt let me directly post the link originally, sorry, here it is: www.reddit.com/r/BambuLab/s/Xs915o4VZj

Interesting discussion, I read through it, two short notes regarding hot housings:

Preface Fact 1: First there is the so-called heat disinfestation - especially in the organic Bio food sector, the only way to do without chemicals. Also bed bug control in the hotel industry, that’s where the experiences of 50-70°C “low” permanent temperatur come from.

So Fact 1: Operating a room/chamber at 70°C for 3-4 days places extreme demands on the electronics, even constant exposure to 50°C leads to a few failures with repair costs - 70°C is fatal. The professional implementation of an installation that can withstand 70° permanently is expensive an not cheap at all. Loading non-ferrous metals with more than 300°C is not cheap. Strength then drops very quickly at 300°C - E.g. aluminum we are already halfway to the melting point and after solid comes loose. And there is no longer just one right answer between tight and loose. Then it becomes very relative…

Preface Fact 2: There is equipment that can withstand 250° - e.g. household oven. There are always people who think that they are smarter than everyone else and get a normal household oven for such applications for cheap prices.

Fact 2: A household oven has short-term loads, nobody bakes 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at home - so no privat user will charge for it in the professional senses. Fruit dryers in the household are also used once a year during the harvest season… if you want dry or keep a chamber permanently at 70° all year round, that will cost at least 1000 USD or else you can just buy 4 times for 250 USD - 1000 USD still works in 10 years - if you buy cheaply, you won’t buy twice, you will buy 8 - 10 times. But I don’t think anyone uses fruit dryers for filament drying in the industrial sense. So it really is constantly drying all year round, if you break down the hours then it will also be for private use only… and if not, you will think sooner or later on the semi pro dryers - You’ll find out for yourself and I don’t have to say anything about it :wink:

In summary, I’m not always right either, I’m happy to be surprised, but I rarely believe in miracles.:

A chamber area of 30-45°C is cheap to get. If it’s constantly around 50°C, that’s something different, and if it’s a 70°C permanent chamber area, that’s a completely different league especially if there is something in there with 300 degrees and more. Then it goes into a completely different, non-private league that becomes expensive. Of course it can certainly be implemented cheaply in the short term. But then you should you adjust the expectations accordingly of the lifetime circle or one in a life time use…