The company typically focuses on its line of high-quality Pharaoh 3D printers, but recognized the necessity of properly drying raw printing materials to keep performance issues and cosmetic defects in 3D printed parts to a minimum.
“Printing material needs to be properly dried. This is a common practice in plastic processing industry, but so far has been totally ignored by the desktop 3D printing community,” Laura Araja, Account Manager for Mass Portal, told 3DPrint.com.
Mass Portal launched its professional Filament Dryer FD1 last month, a convective rotary desiccant renewal dryer for filaments. The FD1 is compatible with most open material printers currently on the market, and decreases printing defects related to excess moisture, resulting in improved 3D printing process reliability and part quality.
The FD1 comes with custom drying settings, and includes pre-sets for most materials, as well as material pre-heating, cross-winding detection, and front loading. It has both Ethernet and wireless network connection, rotary desiccant renewal drying up to 80°C, and touchscreen control, so users can connect to an online materials database and choose the correct drying process for the material they are working with.
Mass Portal’s FD1 filament dryer is compatible with industry-standard filament spools, in 1.75, 2.85, and 3 mm diameters, up to 1 kg, and even works well with highly moisture-sensitive materials. With most 3D printers, the FD1 has a standalone operation; it can also be fully integrated with the company’s Pharaoh series printers.
Sometimes people try to store multiple spools of filament inside large airtight plastic containers, which is definitely better than storing them in baggies, but it still causes problems with moisture. Each time the container is opened so you can retrieve a spool of filament, moisture-laden air from the outside rushes into the container, which affects the spools still inside; after just a few times of opening the container, the dry air inside is no more. By using PrintDry’s single spool Filament Containers, this problem is eliminated.
Retail pricing per container will start at about $10, but right now there are still plenty of Early Bird specials left on Kickstarter – you can get a pack of six PrintDry Filament Containers for just CA $48. For a Kickstarter pledge of $168, you can get one PrintDry Filament Dryer, along with a pack of six filament containers, though this reward only ships to certain countries. With over a month left in the Kickstarter campaign, PrintDry has already far surpassed its original goal, so make sure to pledge before all of the Early Bird specials are gone!
To learn more, check out the Kickstarter campaign video:
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