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Smart International Introducing Multimaterial Dryer for 3D Printing Filaments

Moisture is not your friend when it comes to 3D printer filament, as humidity can cause weakened material, which then leads to fragile prints, poor surface finish and adhesion, and also degradation. The filament can break in your printer or parts can warp or become very brittle.  If you just leave a PLA filament on your printer it will degrade in days, nylon in hours. That’s why it’s so important to keep your material dry before you use it.

Smart International, the 3D printing licensee for KODAK, just announced the launch of a new system that they say will help dry 3D filaments and materials up to ten times faster than other systems – the Smart3D Multimaterial Dryer.

“While typical drying cycles take between 8 – 48 hours and use heat which does not remove moisture completely, the Smart 3D MultiMaterial Dryer uses a hybrid technology to dry filament in as little as an hour,” Helen Blesky, the Marketing Manager for KODAK 3D Printing’s Global Brand Licensee Smart International, told 3DPrint.com.

The 892 x 500 x 825 mm machine, developed for the FFF 3D printing market, offers efficient 3D filament drying through the use of hybrid technology, and, as a Smart International press release states, integrates industrial drying “at end-user level.” By ensuring moisture-free filament, users of the Smart3D Multimaterial Dryer can achieve consistent and repeatable 3D printing results.

Most current solutions that work to combat moisture and humidity will dry filament through the use of heat, but this really isn’t the best solution to the problem. For starters, heat won’t even necessarily remove 100% of the humidity from filament, and it doesn’t allow different materials to dry at the same time. In addition, it can affect both the chemical and physical characteristics of the materials it’s being used to treat by up to several degrees, and it can take between 8-48 hours to run a full cycle.

The new Smart3D Multimaterial Dryer uses a hybrid technology that can ensure dry filament in as little as one hour – up to ten times faster than current methods of drying. With an internal storage capacity of 733 x 250 x 506 mm – equaling up to 30 spools able to be dried and stored inside – the system is compatible with any 3D printing filament with a spool diameter of up to 500 mm.

“This product is the natural result of our customers’ requests to complete the low moisture chain and guarantee repeatable prints. When we launched the Kodak filament line featuring low moisture and vacuum-sealed packaging, and the enclosed KODAK Portrait 3D Printer with its filament protection cases, humidity was not widely perceived as FFF 3D printing’s silent enemy as it begins to be understood now,” stated Demian Gawanski, CCO of Smart International. “Since then, with chemical giants strongly stepping onto our industry and broadening its range of applications, it hurts our eyes to see high performance filament go to waste, bake in ovens or centrifugate in salad spinners. We feel this completes the most comprehensive professional ecosystem on the market and inaugurates our new year of exciting Industry 4.0 compliant releases targeted at exacting customers.”

The system, with both Ethernet and USB connectivity, recognizes spools through RFID tags, and an intuitive 7″ touchscreen records all the ambient conditions inside the drying chamber. Each filament can be scanned as it’s stored, so it’s very easy to keep track of your stock of dried materials.

When it comes to energy consumption, the Smart3D Multimaterial Dryer is very efficient, as it uses up to ten times less energy than other filament dryers on the market; this allows users to process more material in a shorter amount of time. Speaking of materials, the new system’s drying process makes it possible to dry several different materials, such as TPU, PVA, and Nylon, at the same time.

This latest edition to the KODAK 3D Printing Ecosystem comes with a discount of 10% off the $4299 MSRP for pre-order customers throughout the month of February, or until the limited stock of systems runs out. Visit local resellers for availability; pre-ordered machines will ship out this April.

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[Images provided by Smart International]

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A New Filament Drying Solution Arrives From Apium

It’s an unfortunate fact that a lot of things can go wrong when 3D printing. Many people who are unfamiliar with the technology think that it’s like magic: you just press a button and out pops a finished, perfect part. But with every 3D printing technology comes its own problems, and there are plenty in FDM/FFF technology. Poor adhesion, warping, nozzle clogging, and spectacular meltdowns that seem to happen for no apparent reason – they’re all part of the 3D printing adventure.

One of the biggest issues that causes prints to fail or come out imperfectly is moisture. Many polymer filaments are hydrophilic, which means that they like moisture and will happily absorb it from the air surrounding them – that’s why spools of filament commonly come in airtight containers with little desiccant bags in there with them. This is particularly true for materials like PLA and nylon, which are more hydrophilic than others. So what happens when filament absorbs moisture?

3D printing filaments are made from polymers, which are in turn made up of multiple monomers joined together. Those polymer chains can break down, however, or depolymerize, and one way that this can happen is a process called hydrolysis, which is when a water molecule breaks a polymer chain. So when a supply of filament gets wet and is then extruded, the water inside it vaporizes, causing air bubbles and voids – you’ll know this has happened if you start hearing snapping and crackling noises while printing.

This can weaken material and cause poor inter-layer adhesion, as well as poor surface finish. It’s just not a good thing, but unfortunately it’s all too easy for filament to draw in water from the atmosphere and get messed up. On the bright side, the damage is not irreversible, if you dry the filament out before you extrude it. For this purpose, there are filament-drying products, and one of the newest is the Apium Filament Dryer from German company Apium.

Apium is focused on industrial 3D printing solutions, a leader in PEEK and other high performance polymers. The Apium Filament Dryer was developed in partnership with Singapore’s Purpose AM Systems and promises less oozing, stringy filament caused by moisture absorption, as well as better interlayer adhesion and mechanical properties.

“Through our partnership with Purpose AM, we are launching Apium Filament Dryers and provide our end-users with the complete solution for processing high performance polymers,” said Pinar Karakas, Head of Marketing and Quality Management at Apium. “We offer the unique AM solution with our advanced customer support established by our Service Center experts and forerunner technologies.”

The Apium Filament Dryer has thermally insulated walls, which reduces heat loss, and offers front loading which enables easy filament interchange. It has a rotary desiccant system for the dehumidification of incoming air, as well as a set of HEPA and active carbon filters. It is compatible with all Apium P Series 3D printers and Apium filaments, as well as several other open-system 3D printers.

Apium is ready to ship the filament dryers upon order and offers a 12-month warranty.

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