EVO-TECH’s EL-102 3D Printer

We took a look at EVO-TECH’s new EL-102 high-temperature 3D printer.

In 2016 we first encountered the Austrian company, which at that time was experimenting with higher-temperature desktop 3D printers, specifically to print engineering materials and in fact metal-infused filaments.

But that was two years ago, and today we see the company now marketing a rather large professional 3D printer capable of 3D printing a wide variety of high-temperature materials. The EL-102, as it is named, has a number of very interesting specifications:

• Enormous build volume of 500 x 400 x 510 mm

• Heated build chamber, reaching up to 110C

• Heated print surface, up to 200C

• Dual independent extruders, with a cleaning station to avoid “stringies”

• Disposable build plate sheets held down by vacuum

• Different types of sheets can match the chemistry of the printing material

• Water cooling for certain components exposed to the high-heat build chamber

• On board filament drying chamber

• Nozzle temperature up to 420C, able to 3D print most materials

If I were to make a list of the characteristics of a good 3D printer for engineering materials, this would be the list.

There are not that many 3D printers of this volume that offer the ability to 3D print engineering materials. The EL-102 has an enormous build volume of such a size that may generate printing challenges even for non-engineering materials. However, EVO-TECH has prepared a number of standard print profiles for more successful 3D printing experiences.

A problem often encountered with larger-sized 3D printers is the increased requirement for print material. Indeed, the EL-102 has a build volume of 102L (hence the name of the machine). That is a huge volume that likely would require multiple spool swaps during a long print job.

However, EVO-TECH has smartly made their integrated filament drying spool mounts of sufficient size to accommodate very large spools of filament material.

If you can’t quite see the size from that image, here’s another with EVO-TECH’s Markus Kaltenbrunner holding one of the enormous 10kg spools of material that are commonly used in this machine.

The EL-102 will be available very soon and is said to be priced at around €43,500 (US$50,000).

Via EVO-TECH