The Kobra 3 with Color Engine Pro, and the Photon Mono M7 Pro 3D printers [Source: Anycubic]
Anycubic released a cascade of announcements yesterday on advanced 3D printers, materials and even an online service.
The Shenzhen company has faced stiff competition from rivals in recent months, where several companies announced low-cost color-switching desktop 3D printers, among other advances. Now it seems that Anycubic has made the move to catch up and perhaps surpass the competition.
The series of announcements this week included the following:
- The Kobra 3 Combo FFF 3D printer, which includes a color-switcher accessory
- The Photon Mono M7 and M7 Pro AI-powered resin 3D printers
- Makeronline, an online 3D model sharing site offering a variety of functions
- A series of new colored filaments using the PANTONE color standard
Let’s look at these one at a time. As of this writing, we don’t know the pricing for the new products and services.
Kobra 3 Combo
Anycubic has been incrementally improving their FFF equipment over the past two years, and the Kobra 3 seems to be the culmination of all that effort. The device boasts a larger build volume at 250 x 250 x 260 mm, larger than their prior devices. The Kobra 3 is a high speed machine, capable of printing at 600mm/s with 0.1mm layers with the help of onboard accelerometers for calibration.
The primary highlight of the Kobra 3 is the revolutionary Color Engine Pro. This add-on can accommodate up to four 1kg filament spools and is capable of changing filaments during a print job by retracting and re-inserting from a different spool. This facilitates four-color printing jobs.
That’s not it — Anycubic even allows for the coupling of up to two Color Engine Pro units, which means printing jobs can be managed with up to eight filaments when both units are employed.
But there’s more: aside from its filament switching abilities, the Color Engine Pro is also designed as an environmental chamber that ensures the filament spools are kept at the ideal humidity level to maintain the best print quality. This allow operators to leave filament spools in the Color Engine Pro between jobs without any worry.
And one last point: the Color Engine Pro also has the ability to read RFID tags on the spools to automatically recognise the material, thus making machine operations significantly easier.
I’m quite interested to learn the pricing for this unit, as well as give it a test in our lab.
Photon Mono M7 Pro
Two variants of a new resin 3D printer were also announced, the M7 and M7 Pro. These machines can print up to 130mm in height per hour using a high resolution 14K LCD light engine. By printing with thicker layers it’s possible to achieve speeds of 220mm per hour, which is quite fast.
The more notable feature is an increased operational sophistication though the use of artificial intelligence. Anycubic has made the M7 more intelligent and able to handle more operational scenarios. They explain:
“This internally developed intelligent assistant support is made possible through core algorithms such as AI vision, motion control, and motor control, which reduce the barrier to entry for users and amplify the overall printing experience. While the integration of intelligent assistant accelerates printing speeds, it also prioritizes printing quality and reliability.”
Makeronline
It seems that their competition all has large and growing online communities, so Anycubic has made their own: Makeronline. This site will provide access to shared 3D models, which presumably can be easily dispatched to your 3D printers through the Anycubic app.
But it’s more than just 3D models. There is a discussion forum, and it seems that Anycubic will use the platform as their way to communicate with their community through news announcements and more. Makeronline will also include online contests, where the community can get directly engaged.
PANTONE Filaments
Finally, we have some new filament colors:
- Peach Fuzz
- Interstellar Violet
- Tropical Turquoise
- Spring Leaf
The unique disposition of the colors is fascinating, but even more so is the alliance between Anycubic and PANTONE, a name renowned for its industry-standard colors. Such a collaboration assures high uniformity and predictability in the filaments’ colors, making them ideal for use in production. The direction Anycubic will take with this strategy piques intrigue.
Anycubic’s most monumental announcement is on the horizon, shedding light on their quietude in the recent past.
They’ve been productively occupied.
Via Anycubic