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Creality introduced what could be the best filament drying solution on the market: the SpacePi X4.
Filament Drying
Filament drying has become increasingly important in the 3D print world with the growing use of engineering materials. Unlike PLA and ABS, some engineering filaments tend to absorb significant amounts of moisture from the air, which corrupts the quality of the filament.
Absorbed moisture stays in the filament until it’s printed. When the moisture reaches the hot end, it boils, creating tiny bubbles in the extrusion. These weaken the part, in addition to messing up the surface quality. Dry filaments always print best.
Because of this, there has been a small explosion of filament drying systems appearing. Most of them are simple in design, typically an enclosed chamber with some desiccant to passively soak up moisture, or a heating element to raise the temperature.
Both of those approaches fail. Desiccant rapidly becomes neutralized as it absorbs moisture from the air and must be regularly dried in an oven to recharge its potential. Few 3D printer operators actually do this. The heating approach also fails because while the moisture transfers from the filament to the heated chamber air, it stays in that air. When the heater is turned off, the moisture is simply re-absorbed into the filament.
Because of these problems, I’ve been a bit skeptical of most filament drying systems.
Then I read the specifications for Creality’s new SpacePi X4. It seems that Creality has accounted for all these issues and a few more, resulting in a very powerful drying system.
SpacePi X4 Features
Let’s take a look at the SpacePi X4 to see why it provides far better drying capability.
The first feature I noticed was that the SpacePi X4 actively vents moist air from the chamber. This solves the major problem with heated dryers by actually getting rid of the moisture.
The SpacePi X4 uses desiccant, but the device is able to automatically regenerate it! This is the first filament dryer I’ve seen that actually does this, and that solves a major problem with drying.
With those major problems solved, I looked at the remaining features of the SpacePi X4 and was quite impressed.
This is a four-spool system, which provides notable capacity, but it’s more than that: the device has two independent sealed chambers. This means that two different materials with unique drying requirements can be handled at the same time. That’s something no other desktop filament dryer can do, and allows makers to have multiple materials ready to print.
The drying temperature can be as high as 85°C, which is higher than typical filament drying systems that top out at around 60°C. This added heat is critical to dry certain high-temperature materials such as PA, PC, and PAHT. For example, you might have PC in one chamber and PLA in the other.
The SpacePi X4 is designed to hold spools while printing, and there is a port to carry filament from the dryer to the 3D printer. However, unlike most filament dryers, the SpacePi X4 includes a one-way valve. The lid to each chamber also has a locking mechanism to make sure it’s closed. Creality has gone to great lengths to ensure the drying chambers are truly sealed.
SpacePi X4 Smart Features
Like some other filament dryers, the SpacePi X4 includes a touchscreen to control operations. The device includes a wide range of pre-made drying profiles for many materials. However, it’s also possible for operators to devise and store their own profiles for unique materials. One interesting feature is that Creality apparently designed an entirely new interface dedicated to filament drying, which appears on the SpacePi X4.
There are a number of “smart” features in the SpacePi X4 to lower the cost of operation. For example, the fan slows down when the target temperature is reached, which also reduces operational noise levels. Creality stated that the SpacePi X4 uses less power on a per-chamber basis than its major competitors.
The SpacePi X4 seems to be the most advanced desktop filament drying solution on the market at the moment, and it should be considered by anyone requiring dry filaments — which is all 3D printer operators.
The SpacePi X4 is available to be shipped now, and it turns out Creality has a sale on until July 11. They’ve priced the unit at only US$149. Get it at that price while you can!
Via Creality
