The bambu of resin printers?
What is the Apex-maker X1 hi-speed printer let’s take a journey and see what the hype is!
Times of change in 3d printing
Over the past year we’ve seen some huge leaps in the world of 3d printing. In just about each aspect there’s big big leaps. Filaments new duals and tri colours, carbon fiber mixes and a whole host of others from DIY to industrial. Resins have come on leaps and bounds from :
Standard,
Abs-like,
Engineers,
High detail
And , uth nebula dual colour series and so many more
advances of the machines
Printers, like Materials have progressed at huge speeds literally. Seeing more and more coming out with new features. Progression of kipper bringing hi speeds along with liner rails making more stable faster and more precise Machines. The star fdm release being the bambu bringing new speeds great prints wrapped in a stylish skin.
This brings us to the resin printers we’ve seen some really impressive machines enter the market. Getting bigger, better resolutions and better construction and gaining higher speeds. From the incredible uniformation gktwo with it’s great features and stable 8k printing. To the newer high speeds of the creality halot mage pro. Until now!
Over the past few weeks again a new presents to the industry has appeared. THAT’S A WEEKLY OCRRENCE YOU MAY SAY. This is somthing different. Special you might say. From nowhere we see Apex-Maker arrive with there X1. It’s shaping up to be a bit of a game changer and for many reasons.
Its a industrial grade large format lcd resin printer. More bells and whistles than you could wish for. Capable of some serious speeds. And personally I’m seeing this as the bambu of the resin world currently.
Let’s take a deeper look
The Apex-maker X1 comes with a whole host of features that the community has been screaming for. Until now we’ve never had so many on a machine before.
Let’s take a look at the Apex-maker X1 and importantly a look at Apex-maker in general.
Lcd
Lets start by looking at the lcd right in the heart of this huge machine.
The X1 uses a lcd (Liquid Crystal Display) technology that powers this awesome 3d printer!👇
46*46um Square Pixel Structure, Flawless Replication Accuracy For industrial-grade LCD 3D printers,
The Monochrome LCD is crucial, Determining machine stability, Print accuracy, And fine details. It adopts a 46µm46um square pixel structure ensures precise replication without distortion.
Temperature Resistance Matters.
Effective heat management is crucial during printing. Due to resin’s chemical reaction when exposed to 405 nm light. The mono LCD’s temperature resistance is vital. The high-transmittance 405nm industrial-grade LCD, which can withstand a temperature of 85-90 degrees.
Remarkable Uniformity of 92%
Uniformity is essential for accurate printing. Apex-maker X1 adopts Pengji Photoelectricity’s groundbreaking fifth-generation 16-inch mono lcd, boasting an impressive 92% uniformity.
10% LCD Transparency & 10mW/cm² Energy Output. You read correct THAT’S A MASSIVE 16INCH SCREEN!
Heated vat
Yep you got it the Apex-maker has a heated vat. Cleverly locating over the screen the vat as a pair ov location lugs. These lugs not only locate the vat perfectly. They also aline a set of pins. These pins located at the back left of the vat play a huge part in the vat heating.
The pins are the connection for the vat heater almost like arteries connecting the brain to the heater. The temp is controlled via the machines great tutch screen. This allows the user huge control to select there desired tempretur allowing them to ensure the best conditions to print. Removing the vat is quite clever. Like most resin printers it does have 2 twist knobs but with a difference! What Apex-maker has done is very cleaver u simply loosen the knobs and there on a leaver sistem. Simply losen and the whole pin pivets releasing the vat. This allows the user to lift the vat with no possibility of losing the twist nuts.
Auto top up and retreival
On the rear right of the vat we find a pick up nozzle that hangs from the vat. This long nozzle acts as both the entry and dispel nozel.
connected to the top of the nozzle is a tube that feeds through the inner back wall of the machine through a pump and out to a bottle lid. The Apex-maker X1 allows u to choose how the pump operates mainly in 3 opions selected on the screen.
Options.
1: vat fill continuously fill Until the vat reaches a set level were the sensor cuts off the pump 2:vat drain continuo is empty until vat is clear of resin
3: auto top up mode continuously monitors resin levels while printing and tops up as the level lowers
The pump system uses a steady speed so as not to enduce any thermal shock. This enables un inturupted printing with no need to open the machine mid print.
Vat fep
So currently there’s a influx of new feps on the market. Different feps stating different things. Fep nfep TPS feps. Each have different release property’s. We’re we used to only see standard fep originally on the 2k and 4k machines there became a demand tor better quality films with the release of 8k cleaner prints and less suction. This being said they still generate a bit to much suction for hi speed. The Apex-maker team have worked on a special tps fep which has a lubrication property. The allows for higher speeds to be possible with minimum friction and suction resulting in a easyer printing expirience.
Z and build plate
To enable the X1 to achieve the high speeds and accurate pression a dual linear system to eliminate any twisting and smooth responsive travel with minimum resistance and friction. This allows the z rod to run at alot higher speed maintaining stability. The build plate is massive held by 2 nylon finger nuts. The plate slides onto a large sturdy housing and the nuts hold it very firm with no side to side movement.
Camera
On the Back internal wall to the left hand side just above the level of the vat is a depression. In the depression you will see a USB type C located. This is to connect to the supplyed camera simply connect to the camera and it has a magnetic back that u mount in the depression. U can ten simply follow the camera instructions scan the QR code for it’s APP using your phone or tablet. The app will alow you to pair allowing you to monitor your printing progress. The large colour touch screen.
Filtration
The X1 has a filtration system that draws the fumes through a filter system on the rear tight inner of the case. It pulls the fuems through its filter medium and releases the purified air out the rear of the machine. For the most part I’ve found printing with the X1 to not smell, until opening the machine. But while the lids closed and the machines running there is actually minimum smell.
Door and over all aspects
The door on the X1 is awesome. Orange screen surrounded by its stunning textured powder coated metal. It fully lifts up supported by 2 large pistons more than man enough to hold the door. In fact so well made and positioned they hold the door at any potion I’ve opened to. From half way to fully open. The doors stable with minimum flex. It locates with 2 tabs into the main body when closed and is very asphetically pleasing. The whole body has a textured powder coat in black with silver accents giving a really nice quality look over all. Theres a led blue status bar which is one of the coolest features I’ve seen so far. It lights from left to right with the percentage of the completed print.
The large touchscreen
The large colour touch screen is fantastic! It’s large size and colour display make for easy to read icons. It’s responsive and nice to navigate. This brings us to the Sheer mass of options and setting. On the Apex-maker X1 there is literally every setting and some I’m still working through the after 2weeks of using the machine. The good side is the settings are batched in corrosponding folders so its easy to find them. There is only really 1 setback (which really isn’t a bad thing at all) and that is it takes a little longer to learn all the settings. The settings give you control over every aspect from internal storage and the auto top up right through to print settings they really have covered everything.
Accessories
Supplied with the machine is a great collection of accessories and tools. Though mine was a early beta/promotion unit I’d expect the accessories to be the same.
Comprising of all the items you will need for this machine including: Allen keys scraper fep tray official sandisk usb and mine arrived with spare fill and reclaim Nozzels. With everything supplyed it gives a sense of great confidence to start printing straight away
Apex-maker resins
Apex-maker also have a line of very good quality resins to accommodate all your printing needs with the X1. Not only do they have a great hi-speed resin but also cover most aspects of printing. I can’t wait to see their resin line grow as it is extremely good.
Apex-makers kickstarter
With their kickstarter underway and exceeding it’s goal within a hour of its launch some things are becoming clear. Apex have just added extra options consisting of a wash and cure and many items like extra vat feps Ect that backers can add on to there order allowing the backer to customise there order to there needs. This shows Apex-maker are adapting and changing with the projects growth and the growing apex community’s needs. It’s a great sign of what’s hopefully to come from Apex-maker and I really hope they continue on that path. The X1 facebook group is growing at a exstreamly fast rate (be shore to check it out to see what the promoters are making.)
On a final note there are some YouTube videos starting to appear on YouTube hears a medley from my good friend Steve on a table top scenery project using hi speed resin.
Just a glimpse of how good this machine really is.
Make sure to check out under the hotend 3d group on fb for offers deals and reviews.
Thank you for providing me with these article examples. May I ask you a question?
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I needs to spend a whiloe studying morre or understanding more.
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