April 9th marks 3D printing powerhouse Creality’s tenth year in business, and it is celebrating with a new line of color printers, a laser, and two scanners.
Creality focused on speed during 2023, releasing several high-speed printers such as the K1, K1Max, and Ender 3 V3 KE. The long wait for Creality’s entry into multicolor printing will end this summer with the launch of the K2 Plus and the Creality Filament System (CFS).
The K2 Plus will have a 350 mm cubed build volume, making it larger than the K1 Max and, more importantly, larger than competitor Bambu Lab’s X1 Carbon. Creality said the K2 Plus will be the first in a series of K2 printers, but did not indicate the size of the other machines in the lineup.
Like the X1 Carbon, the K2 Plus will have an optional four-spool material handler that can be daisy-chained with additional CFS units to produce 16-color prints. It will likewise have an RFID reader to automatically identify marked spools. The CFS unit will provide a temperature and humidity controlled environment.
It's unlikely that Creality’s CFS will be able to read Bambu Lab filament RFID tags, as that information is proprietary. Creality has been building a library of its own high-speed filament, which currently includes ten colors of PLA. They also have PETG, ASA, and ABS in limited colors.
Creality has been a supporter of Open Source, which hopefully will allow the CFS to use 3rd party filaments without the need for branded RFID tags.
The press release also said the K2 Plus will have active chamber heating, which should greatly improve the quality of advanced filaments like ABS and ASA. Creality is also promising improved AI monitoring and auto leveling.
Hot on the heels of the Ender 3 V3, Creality announced a new large format version, the Ender 3 V3 Plus. The machine will be a Core XZ bed slinger with a 300x300x330 mm build volume. Tom’s Hardware has yet to receive a V3 for review, but the V3 promises 600mm/s print speeds backed by a sturdy all metal frame and high flow hotend.
Creality also announced a 14K resin 3D printer, the HALOT-Mage S, with a 10.1” mono LCD. The printer promises sharp prints with high speed and an odor free experience thanks to a built-in air purifier.
The company will also launch a powerful 60W laser that is fully enclosed and guided with a built-in camera. The Creality Falcon 2 Pro will have a “bonus” 1.6 W laser for ultra-fine engraving.
Creality will continue its fondness for animal-themed scanners with the introduction of two new portable scanners, the CR-Scan Otter and CR-Scan Raptor.
The CR-Scan Otter is a handheld scanner with four lenses that can scan in 24-bit color with high detail. It has a wide range, with the ability to capture objects as small as 10mm up to 2000mm. It has an anti-shaking feature for smooth scanning and reportedly can capture black and metal objects without the need for a spray coating.
The CR-Scan Raptor is an ultra-high accuracy scanner, capable of capturing details as fine as 0.02mm and speeds up to 60 fps. It uses infrared structured light scanning with seven laser lines to record objects as small as 5mm and up to 2000mm.
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