BIQU has introduced a new product that really should have been invented a long time ago.
The company has been frantically producing all manner of accessories, upgrades and add-ons for Bambu Lab 3D printers under their “Panda” brand. It’s hard to keep up with their products, but this one caught my eye: Panda Breath.
It’s a “smart air filtration and heating system” that is able to control the environment of the 3D printer’s build chamber.
Most desktop 3D printers have minimal or no thermal controls in the build chamber. Few have fans to blow out hot air when it gets too warm, and some recent machines have vents that open at the top when using material affected by too much heat. But they don’t really regulate the temperature precisely.
It’s an accessory that is mounted inside the build chamber of several types of Klipper-based 3D printers, and provides several features:
- Active Chamber heating
- Air filtration
- Drying
You might be wondering how the Panda Breath connects to the system, and it’s pretty ingenious how BIQU does this. The device is actually wireless, and you control it from an app outside of the 3D printer. It can sense the temperature of the print surface in the 3D printer, and automatically activates when it detects an operational temperature. So it looks like there is no intrusive wiring required to use the Panda Breath.
The Panda Breath quickly heats up the build chamber to the desired temperature with its 300W PTC heater, which should aid in preventing warps during printing. It could also enable printing of challenging materials like PA, ABS, ASA and others on machines that otherwise could not use them.
An onboard replaceable filter leverages the airflow to clean out particles, making the machine a little bit safer. We’ve seen filters of this type before, but this time it is integrated with a heating system.
The drying feature is interesting. The Panda Breath has a “drying” setting, which you would use when the 3D printer is inactive. You then place spools inside the build chamber, which then acts as a drying chamber.
This is an impressive concept, and one that in theory could be used on all kinds of enclosed desktop 3D printers.
The device hasn’t been released yet, and it seems there is some development yet to be completed. For example, the mobile app “is coming”, and “automatic operation coming soon via firmware upddate”.
In retrospect the Panda Breath seems like an obvious accessory — so why didn’t anyone make one before? I have no idea, but this one is soon to be available from BIQU at a price of US$108.
Via BIQU
