Is it a whole new printer, or is it something where you can just upgrade the 2.0/artisan to support IDEX?
If it’s a whole new printer, is it still going to be a bedslinger or is it going to move to core XY?
If it’s upgradeable from 2.0/artisan, obviously we can’t just strap a different toolhead to the 2.0 linear rails to get IDEX, so I’m guessing it at least requires a new X axis… But would I be able to get away with only upgrading the X axis or will I need to buy a whole new set of rails?
Are there plans to make the IDEX system available for 2.0 hardware or only for artisan?
If for 2.0, will it work for 2.0 w/ the original rails or will you need to upgrade the whole set to the improved 2.0 rails first?
If you need to upgrade to the improved 2.0 rails, will there be an option to purchase the IDEX X axis along w/ the improved Y/Z rails or do we need to purchase a new set of rails and then additionally a new X axis?
What will be the feature set of the new IDEX system?
Will it have improved cooling over the dual extrusion system?
Will it have improved temperature capabilities (e.g. all metal hotend?)
Will the hotend components from the dual extrusion be reusable in the IDEX system?
First: Kudos to snapmaker: They have learned from the communication hickups with Artisan and make people aware that plan to buy a dual extrusion module that another product is due that might address the buyer’s needs better - I think that is fair and an improvement!
Some Snapmaker engineers seperated from Snapmaker and started the Jadelabo J1 project via Kickstarter
The campaign was successful, but the engineers returned to Snapmaker
So the now nearly finished product will be sold via Snapmaker
It is a completely different concept from Artisan or SM1/2 - it has a Core XY base and two somewhat independent toolheads. Products for the J1 will most likely not be compatible with Artisan/SM product line - the only exception I can see potentially would be the hotend modules, since the J1 has similarities here, but if they really aligned the designs here is difficult to tell.
When I see screenshots from the Touchscreen UI of Artisan and J1, my impression is that they look very similar, so perhaps there’s some shared UI elements, but due to the different aspect ratio of the screens I do not see that this will come to the SM2 screen - and I don’t see a problem here. I would not be surprised if J1 runs on Marlin like Artisan and SM, so potentially the firmwares will merge to the benefit of all three products.
I know that not everyone uses facebook, but there is a dedicated group: Snapmaker J1 3D Printer with all the latest information about this printer.
The photos below are from this group :
CoreXY vs the Snapmaker Linear Module system, are completely different. To add an IDEX to a CoreXY system is rather easy where you add an engage/disengage mechanism to the head. With Snapmaker’s Linear Module system, you would need to add an additional carriage with an engage/disengage system, which is not feasible.
Hmm… I beg to disagree. In principle you can have two drive mechanisms (rods, belts, …) inside the linear module and two carriages attached to it, and you’d have more or less the same degrees of freedom as the IDEX on a Core XY… Still, I’d be surprised if they would develop this. If you look only at 3D printing (and perhaps laser) and do not care about milling, Core XY is the better system for large build volumes: Faster and more prcise, the print not moving and thus less endangered… If you look at the insane speeds you can run a Voron at while still getting high print quality, SM2 and Artisan users can only look in envy…
And how are you going to mount the motors? You would need to widen the Linear Module, offset the motors on each end, and you would need to replace the entire X-axis assembly when using the CNC Module.
That is not at all true. I can’t remember the name of the company, but they make a commercial 3D IDEX Printer that uses ball screws, comes built into it’s own enclosure, and prints materials up to 450°C at over 300mm/s. Try that on a Voron and the head will fall off (see Nero 3D).
…and that’s only what I could find in 2 min’s YouTube search, I remember even more extreme examples with no head falling off
But again I do not disagree: The advantage comes in a s soon as you stop to move the print bed all the time, just in Z and very slowly. It reduces moving mass and thus allows for higher accels and speeds. And I’d not doubt that this can be done with lead screws also. But CoreXY is a very low mass system and therefore used in Fabtotum, E3D toolchanger, Voron, Prusa XL, Bambu Lab X1 and others. As soon as you throw milling workloads in, things however look totally different of course.
Did you watch that video and look at the benchy? I’m talking about speeds where the benchy is absolutely perfect with no speed defects, not looking like they’ve melted.
Those “speed defects” are due to extruder limitations, not the kinetics system. These errors/issues are explained in that video. If you have an example of a perfect print at 300mm/s please share the link, I’d love to see what printer and material they are using.
I wasn’t able to find any ball screw IDEX printers, other than ones that used ball screws for the z-axis and belts for the x-axis. There are printers that can achieve the speeds and temperatures you mentioned, but those are borderline industrial printers, with a price to match. They aren’t really comparable to a voron or a snapmaker. If you have any examples of this not being the case, please share; I’d be interested in looking into them.
The video from Nero 3D doesn’t really apply here. He used a printer that was not at all spec’d for printing Ultem and tried printing Ultem on it, for fun, and says as much. The issue in that video is the plastic bits on the extruder failed due to excessive heat being in a heated enclosure and close to a very high temperature hotend. If these parts were made from materials meant to be used in this application, it would have been fine. Again, an issue with the extruder, not the kinematics system.
This is not how any IDEX systems I’ve seen work. They ALWAYS are connected to separate steppers and belts, not engaging/disengaging with the same belt. In IDEX CoreXY, one of the extruder belt loops control both x position for that extruder, and y position for both extruders and the other extuder belt controls only the x position for that extruder. Again, if you have any examples showing otherwise, I’d be interested in seeing them. But I would be surprised here because the whole point of CoreXY is reducing the mass being moved and increasing accuracy, so why add a mechanism that would add weight and introduce slop into the system?
I agree that the cantilevered z axis seems like a bad idea, but I don’t think your other points are accurate: the adjustment screws at the front are for leveling adjustment (probably to accommodate sag from the cantilevering), and the longest rail+belt system has been proven to be perfectly adequate for 3dp, so I’m not sure what is wrong with it (but I’m curious to hear what system you’d think would be better and able to support IDEX)
Rather than argue about it in my opinion, why not buy it and feel it for yourself?
I don’t even want to buy this product as much as I want to buy the Snapmaker 2.0 Dual Extruder…
I own a Fabtotum with a cantilevered Z - and although my intuition says: Bad idea, the practical problems are non existent, it works well! After all, Z does only slow movements, and for CoreXY printing only downwards.
Belts however are really common and for 3D printing have little to no issues - IMHO the right choice.
That said, I am not looking for another 3D printer at the moment, so will not buy either, but not because of the product properties, more because of not needing it. If I would currently look for a printer however, I guess my choice would be one of Prusa XL, Bambu Lab X1 or Voron 2.4. Especially Bambu Lab seems to come with a ton of innovation!
IDEX has 2 heads that move independently, so you can e.g. print 2 items at a time, it’s also supposed to be better with stringing since you can park the head that’s not printing when you print with different filaments.
