FELIXprinters Gets Big with the Pro L and XL

FELIXprinters announced a pair of new professional 3D printers, the Pro L and XL.

The Netherlands-based company has been producing quality desktop 3D printers for many years, with each iteration quietly adding new features, capabilities and increasing performance and quality.

Most recently they announced their Pro 3, a very competent device incorporating all of their machine improvements developed over the past few years. The standout feature, in my opinion, is the unique dual “swing” hot end, which tips the inactive hot end out of the way to avoid unfortunate collisions with prints that sometimes terminate the job.

That and all the other features are in the new Pro L and Pro XL machines.

The Pro L is, as you might imagine, a 3D printer with a larger build volume than the Pro 1. The Pro L’s build volume is 300 x 400 x 400 mm, which is quite a bit larger than the Pro 1’s healthy 235 x 244 x 235 mm volume.

Meanwhile, the Pro XL is even larger, with a massive build volume of 600 x 400 x 600 mm. This is edging on the large-volume 3D printer market, as it’s only a few more dimensional steps to get to the 1m mark. That would place FELIXprinters in competition with BigRep, 3D Platform and other large-format 3D printers. That might be a good thing for FELIXprinters, too, as that market has proven to be quite profitable.

The machines also sport a full complement of connectivity options, including WiFi for workgroup use, and webcams for remote monitoring. A color touchscreen is used for controlling the machine.

Another interesting feature in both the Pro L and Pro XL is the heat control. Of course, both have a heated build chamber that permits reliable 3D printing of many engineering materials that would otherwise warp catastrophically in ambient atmospheres.

The problem frequently seen with heated chambers is that while the hot end, build plate and print itself are heated appropriately, stray heat affects the electronics or mechanical systems that happen to be in or near the hot build chamber. This can affect quality and even the expected lifetime of the machine.

FELIXprinters has smartly divided the machine into two zones: hot and cold. The hot zone includes the elements that should indeed be hot, such as the print, hot end and print plate. The cooled cold zone includes other elements that could be affected or even damaged by heat. This could mean the Pro L and Pro XL machines could last a bit longer than you might expect.

One very interesting twist to the Pro XL is that it, like the Pro L, is only 900mm wide, less than a meter. This is a critical design point because it allows the machine to pass through standard doorways.

I recall conversations with some of the large-format 3D printer manufacturers in the past, who, after launching their products, suddenly found an unexpected barrier to sales: you could not get the machine into the customer’s workshop without taking down a wall.

FELIXprinters will not have that problem.

Finally, the machines come with an incredible three-year warranty (or up to 10,000 hours of use). I don’t think I’ve seen such a long warranty on any 3D printer in the past; most tend to be either 90 days or a year. Having a three-year warranty is a considerable advantage to buyers.

If you’re looking for a reliable, high-quality professional 3D printer, you might want to examine FELIXprinter’s latest products.

Via FELIXprinters