New 14K Printer from Anycubic

[Lemosteam]

Having trouble finding specs on the page below but some comments on the AC Mono X Facebook page imply 16.8um and that the print area is about the same size as the Mono X.  Boasts a 130mm print height/hour too, so our tiny N scale stuff would be printed in minutes.

Text also implies that standard resins can be used as well.

https://store.anycubic.com/products/photon-mono-m7-pro

They stop short of calling this DLP, but it sure looks like a precision reflector to me (lower left image):

[Chris333]

What the F is high speed resin? And why would they ask you to order one without telling the resolution? The little pump on the vat is cool, but I wonder how nasty that would get in a few months.

[Lemosteam]

Not to mention, how do you change resins in that pump?

[peteski]

Not to mention, how do you change resins in that pump?

This pump setup might be geared to some small manufacturers who constantly crank 100s of parts for sale (using the same resin for the entire run).

[Chris333]

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It would be cool to press a button and empty the vat so you can scrape off failed prints. But I just think it is more mess to deal with.

[robert3985]

14K doesn't mean crap. 

There are absolutely zero specifications listed.

Doesn't say what's in the box.

No resin vat size listed.  No print envelope size listed.  No LCD size listed.  No LCD pixel size or dimensions listed.

They'll probably get around to listing all of the above in the near future, but...as of right now, nothing to get excited about.

Incidentally, the high print speeds on ALL the new printers coming out is at the sacrifice of resolution at the print...with noticeable print quality degradation.  Both the larger layer height required as well as the inability of the "high speed resins" to resolve details are the problems so far.

Hopefully, if print speed is important to you, they'll get it all sorted out in the near future.

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[draskouasshat]

14K doesn't mean crap. 

There are absolutely zero specifications listed.

Doesn't say what's in the box.

No resin vat size listed.  No print envelope size listed.  No LCD size listed.  No LCD pixel size or dimensions listed.

They'll probably get around to listing all of the above in the near future, but...as of right now, nothing to get excited about.

Incidentally, the high print speeds on ALL the new printers coming out is at the sacrifice of resolution at the print...with noticeable print quality degradation.  Both the larger layer height required as well as the inability of the "high speed resins" to resolve details are the problems so far.

Hopefully, if print speed is important to you, they'll get it all sorted out in the near future.

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

bob, youre actually incorrect with the layer height/print speed. i have a mono x 6k and 6ks and the largest difference in speed is actually due to the lift speeds. thats where theyre making the big gains in printing time. yes, they do print at thicker layer heights to show a horribly fast print for their advertising purposes though. Ive actually sped up my old 6k by matching the 6ks settings and its done a good job of keeping up with the 6ks.

Drasko

[Peachymike]

Looking at the site it says 223x126mm build area and 13320x5120 pixels. Doing the math comes out to a voxel size of approx. 24.6x16.7. They are using a fresnel lens, a DLP wouldn’t use this. It looks a single mirror rather than a micro mirror device. Maybe a way of lowering the overall height?
Elegoo has released the Saturn 4 in two versions, the ultra takes a page out of Formslabs book and tilts the vat down to peel the layers. Same 19x24 micron voxel size as before but they are also promising faster build speed. Personally I would rather they concentrate on improving the print quality than speed. The actual print is probably the fastest part of the process if you consider time spent on things like creating the file, set ups and such. I add a lot of pauses and tinker a fair bit to get best quality and least failures, an extra hour of print time would be well worth it if the overall outcomes can be improved.
Mike

[Chris333]

You have to realize that when the companies talk to folks about what they want from a printer. They are talking to people printing large dragons holding a sword.

[robert3985]

bob, youre actually incorrect with the layer height/print speed. i have a mono x 6k and 6ks and the largest difference in speed is actually due to the lift speeds. thats where theyre making the big gains in printing time. yes, they do print at thicker layer heights to show a horribly fast print for their advertising purposes though. Ive actually sped up my old 6k by matching the 6ks settings and its done a good job of keeping up with the 6ks.

Drasko

Drasko, Okay...when I print on my 8K Anycubic Photon M3 Premium 10" printer with a layer height of 0.020mm, it prints a lot slower than if I increase the layer thickness to 0.050mm.  You'll note that with all of these new "high speed" 12k and 14k 3D printers, their highest claimed print speed is printing at 0.10mm, which in N-scale would yield an unusable part.

Tell me again why a much thicker print layer doesn't have anything to do with print speed?...because it certainly does on my printer...it prints faster, a LOT faster with a thicker print layer.

Sure, faster lift speed will also decrease print time, but printing at 0.10mm, which is five times fewer layers for a given print height than a layer height of 0.020mm, certainly DOES have a big impact on the print speed.

So, tell my how I'm incorrect again???

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[robert3985]

Just for giggles, I compared the pixel dimensions for three of the latest "high resolution" 3D printers from Anycubic, Phrozen and Elegoo.

Interestingly two of the machines, the Anycubic Photon Mono M7 Pro and the Phrozen Sonic Mighty Revo are both 14K machines and have rectangular pixels on their LED's, with the Anycubic having a maximum pixel dimension of 24.6 microns and the Phrozen's being 24.8 microns.

The Elegoo Saturn 4 Ultra, on the other hand, is only a 12K machine, but has a finer maximum pixel dimension of 24 microns.

When evaluating the pixel sizes, only the larger dimension counts on machines with rectangular pixels if the XY print area is diagonally nearly the same.

Elegoo was smart to go with a less expensive 12K LCD that offers the same effective resolution at the LCD screen as Anycubic or Phrozen with their more expensive 14K screens.

Looks like some really good stuff is coming on the market at this point in time.  However, I'll be waiting until later this year to see what happens before I consider upgrading since I'm very happy with my present printer's performance.

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[nickelplate759]

Rectangular pixels eh?
In my late 20th-Century low-level computer graphics days screens with rectangular pixels were a real pain-in-the-arse to get good looking curves on.   Does it matter in 3D printing?

[Chris333]

Pixels don't care, they are either on or off.

The Mars 4 is $200, the screen for it is $100.

[nickelplate759]

Pixels don't care, they are either on or off.

The Mars 4 is $200, the screen for it is $100.

That's true for pixels on display screens too.  The problem with rectangular pixels in graphics was that the aliasing (stair-steps) were different in the horizontal and vertical directions.  Plus the monitor was black & white (no gray), so anti-aliasing wasn't an optoin.

[Chris333]

The Mars 4 and Ultra are both 18 Micron. The Ultra has a different glass over the screen and a light diffusor under the screen.

Rectangle pixels would matter, but one direction would be 0.0002" less resolution so you would barely notice.