Many a time, people are fascinated with 3D printing but also intimated at the same time. It has seemed almost like something out of a sci-fi movie to the average consumer as a result of the ease of complexity. This is mostly because that’s where most people have had the most exposure to this machine.
Flashforge, a global 3D printing supplier has announced the release of their new machine. A dual extruding printer with a heated chamber, named the “Creator 4”. FlashForge’s Creator 4 comes in a variety of amazing dual-extruder configurations. With this design, it enables side-by-side printing of duplicate parts. Overall, this helps for faster printing of larger production runs for a range of filaments.
Creator 4 has a nice aesthetic about it with a stainless steel body. This should not be surprising, as Flashforge has a thing for aesthetics. They have traditionally made printers that look more like household appliances unlike the average printer manufacturer. Yes, you can say that enclosure design is clearly a strong point for Flashforge. Creator 4, the newest design highlights attributes. We have established that it is a pretty machine and there is no doubt about it. But there is more to it than mere aesthetics, and more of that would be reviewed below. Afterwards, go ahead to level up your 3D printing game with FlashForge Creator 4.
Let’s take a look beyond the aesthetics and see what makes the Creator 4 amazing and unique by looking under the hood.
Components of FlashForge Creator 4
To begin with, there is a pretty chamber that isn’t just for show. This is a heated build chamber that maintains a toasty temperature of about 65 °C. This helps to control the environment and reduce warpage as well. The chamber has a build volume of 400mm (L) x 350mm (W) x 500mm (H). This dimension, according to Flashforge, is suitable for meeting the printing needs of most manufacturing parts.
Next up, the Creator comes with dual extruders. It is important to add that they are independent dual extruders (a.k.a the Flashforge IDEX system). What this means is that they are mounted separately and can print identical parts in parallel. Hence, providing increased output for particular scenarios. As a result, when printing the same model in batch, the output is doubled. Therefore, making it a better choice for mass production of the same part.
Going forward, Creator 4 comes in three different variants. The different variants are for extruding different materials. Similarly, each model comes with 2x copies of the same extruder. Do note that certain specific extruders can be ordered directly from Flashforge should they wish to try new combinations.
The three extruder variants are:
- Extruder F (for flexible filament printing): It is capable of printing TPU85A / TPE / TPB / TPC, with a max extruder temp to 265 °C.
- Extruder-HT (for engineering plastics): It prints PLA / PETG / PC-ABS / PAHT / ABS /ASA / PP / PA / PC, with a max extruder temp to 320 °C.
- Extruder-HS (for carbon fiber composite filaments): It comes with a max extruder temp to 360 °C that enables users to print PACF / PET-CF / PP-CF / PA-GF / PC-ABS / PP-GF / PPS-CF / PPS.
As established above, each variant of the printer comes with 2 matching extruders, all depending on the customer’s choice.
Recall from above that the Creator 4 comes with a heated chamber of 65C that ensures warp-free and crack-free printing. Additionally, this reduces the number of failed builds due to such issues when printing at lower temperatures, such as room temperature. It is powered by 4x ARM 64-bit Cortex A53 processors with silent drivers. This provides a superfast and quiet response for Creator 4.
Moving forward to the stainless steel body. It not only looks fancy, but guarantees the stability of the printer. In other words, it reduces printing jitter thereby ensuring sustainable and efficient operation. It also houses high-precision linear guides on the XY axes that helps to ensure the printing accuracy of the XY axes. This helps to guarantee accurate duplicates when printing components side-by-side simultaneously.
Lastly let’s focus on the motion. It comes with a brand new S-type motion control that helps achieve smoother start and stop. It also aids with more accurate positioning as well as a great printed model accuracy.
In conclusion, Creator 4 is a machine of high reliability with smooth moving parts. It comes with precise operation, and good heat dissipation performance. All summing up an aesthetically pleasing and dependable machine. Did you know that Creator 4 is capable of over 5000 hours of stable and continuous printing? This makes it perfect for those wishing to scale up their printing output for small to medium scale industrial and commercial applications.
Go ahead and level up your 3D printing game with FlashForge Creator 4!