Things are really heating up in the 3D printer world! Last year, Anker threw down the gauntlet with their AnkerMake line of impressively fast and accessible 3D printers, and now Phrozen is jumping from resin to FDM printing with the Phrozen Arco.
If you’re already lost, FDM stands for fused deposition modeling. It’s the more accessible type of 3D printing, as opposed to resin, which requires a bit more knowledge of chemistry and protective respiratory gear.
FDM is the process used by the AnkerMake and many budget printers. You feed a filament line through a hot nozzle, and your model is created layer by layer.
Phrozen has produced several resin printers, but this is its first foray into filaments and layer lines. And it’s not content with just a regular old 3D printer. The Arco sounds like quite the beast, as you can see from its Kickstarter, which still has 25 days to go and has already raised almost $1.7 million!
Here are a few highlights of what the Phrozen Arco is promising:
- Fast speeds (up to 600mm/s!)
- Onboard camera for spying on your prints
- Multiple filament colors on one print (with Chroma Kit)
- Multiple materials supported on the same print (with Chroma Kit)
- Custom slicing software
- Bigger build plate for bigger prints.
Some of this sounds reasonable and amazing, like a bigger build plate and faster speeds. It’s exciting but also not a shocking move forward as the technology refines over time. On the other hand, the Chroma Kit really sounds exciting, but they’re not super forthcoming about the details and how it all works on the Kickstarter.
My understanding for a multi-color printer is that you need either multiple nozzles OR a direct feed from the filament to the hot end that can handle shifting which filament is being fed to the nozzle. It sounds like the Phrozen Arco is using the latter, but a bit more detail would be helpful.
I also don’t love that their demonstration of multi-color printing only shows someone showing an already printed chip. There’s footage of the Arco printing the ubiquitous benchy, but that’s all one color. The Chroma Kit is an extra $299 at full price, and it would be great to see it in action before committing cash to it!
The other thing that the Phrozen Arco is promising and would be really impressive if true is the ability to mix different materials in one print.
Most people use PLA as their “default” material for printing. It’s fairly easy to dial in the temperature needed to get clean layers, and it’s not super picky about room temperature or humidity levels. However, it’s also weaker than other materials.
PETG is another popular material that can be slightly more finicky to get printing cleanly but makes for a stronger print.
On the softer side, there’s also TPU, which is great for slightly more squishy and flexible prints but is an absolute nightmare to get dialed in without some trial and error.
If Phrozen has really figured out how to switch between materials in the same print easily, that would open up a whole new world of design opportunities! They’re saying they can support two materials simultaneously, such as PETG and PLA, so seeing how it works in practice will be interesting!
The Phrozen Arco 3D Printer is available at an early bird price of $699. You can also opt for the Phrozen Arco and PentaShield combo for $808, the Phrozen Arco and Chroma Kit combo for $919, or the mack-daddy Phrozen Arco with a Chroma set, a set of refill filaments, and a PentaShield set combo for $1098.
The Phrozen Arco campaign has hit its backing goal, and the campaign is open until April 7th, so if you’re itching to try something new and experimental in the 3D print world, check it out!
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