BCN3D - Smart Cabinet

Product Description

The Smart Cabinet (SC) completes the Epsilon ecosystem, offering smooth integration with BCN3D Epsilon printers and maximizing their uptime. Its filament humidity control boosts printers’ performance, keeping materials in great condition, and its UPS (uninterruptible power supply) protects the work at all times by avoiding the chance of losing the print job due to power outages.

Compatible with: Epsilon W50 SC, Epsilon W27 SC, Sigma D25

Features

Supported by our smart drying technology, the humidity-controlled environment has been designed to extend the service life of materials, protecting the filament and reducing print failure due to moisture, significantly improving prints.

Humidity-controlled environment

Designed to extend the service life of materials, the alumina absorbs the moisture from the air in the chamber. Once it becomes saturated, this material is isolated from the filaments and gets heated up until it releases the moisture, purging it out of the system. This process effectively keeps the filament dry and in great condition for its use.

• Great for all materials
• Low energy consumption: 12 W Avg / 100 W Max
• 10 storage slots for small filament spools (4 for big spools)
• Prints while in dry storage
• Humidity-controlled environment, dries without heat
• No consumable parts

Integration

Full 3D printing solution. The Smart Cabinet integrates with 3D printers, materials, and software, streamlining the workflow thanks to its fast and easy loading of up to ten filament spools and its wheeled structure, which enables effortless transportation across facilities.

The mechanical properties of the 3D printed part are strongly dependent on how well the filament is stored.

+ 22% Tensile Strength. + 57% Young's Modulus of rigidity.

Our Smart Drying Technology

Within our humidity-controlled environment, an automatic drying cycle pushes the air through a compartment filled with alumina, a material that absorbs the moisture.

The desaturated air is pushed back towards the material compartment, free of any moisture that could damage filaments. This cycle significantly reduces the environment’s relative humidity.

This technology effectively keeps the filament dry, helping the materials maintain their mechanical properties throughout the whole 3D printing process.

BCN3D Spool Cartridge

The new BCN3D Spool Cartridges have been designed to give greater control during the process of loading and unloading filaments, while significantly accelerating both workflows.The magnets in their cover and the main body allow for easier loading of spools, as well as to quickly snap the cartridge in the loading or parking area of the Smart Cabinet. This system also helps avoid filament tangling: when unloading material, the extra slack due to the long distance between the extruders and print heads is kept inside the cartridge.

Effect of environmental humidity on printability of hygroscopic filaments

Print quality was tested with our most hygroscopic filaments, after recreating an environment with constant humidity and storing each spool for 4 days. PVA delivered good print results across a wide range of conditions, while PA—and especially TPU—required a much more restrictive storage protocol.

Highly hygroscopic filaments: humidity limit of printability

The humidity limit of printability was obtained after storing the filaments for 4 days at 25 ºC and specific relative humidity (RH). We observed that PVA could be printed successfully when stored at up to 40% RH. PA started to show superficial imperfection when stored at a 30% RH. TPU proved much sensitive to moisture and did not give satisfactory results when stored above 12% RH.

Highly hygroscopic filaments: Shelf life

The three hygroscopic filaments under test underwent a kinetic absorption evaluation. When stored at typical humidity conditions (60% RH), each filament required a different amount of time to reach its printability limit. We calculated that PVA could be kept on an unprotected shelf for up to 12 hours before requiring a drying cycle. PA shelf life was estimated at 4 hours, which makes it unsuitable to very long prints. According to our calculation, TPU should be handled carefully, as its extrusion performances started decaying after only 1.5 hours.

Get A Great Finish

Hygroscopicity, the tendency to absorb moisture, is a great enemy of 3D printing, as it is a prominent characteristic of most thermoplastic materials. Even a small percentage of humidity can negatively affect most filaments and, therefore, the end result of the print job, not only through imperfections which appear on the print surface, but also damaging its mechanical properties. Correctly storing filament will have a significant effect on the overall quality of printed parts.

Specifications