On December 1st 2021 during EXPO 2020 in Dubai in United Arab Emirates, Creality – one of the largest manufacturers of amateur 3D printers in the world, presented a number of new products that it intends to introduce to the market at the beginning of next year. Due to their number and the fact that Creality is one of the most popular brands of 3D printers in the world, we decided to describe most of the new products in subsequent, separate articles. We are starting with the most significant one – the new Creality Ender-3 S1 model, which is the latest installment of one of the 3-4 most popular amateur 3D printers in the world.
The Ender-3 is a construction based on the popular Josef Prusa model – Prusa i3. It has a reasonable working area of 22 x 22 x 27 cm, a frame made of aluminum profiles, one print head and a heated bed. The device is offered as a kit for self-assembly, however, this translates into several ready-assembled segments, the assembly of which takes an average user several minutes. The price of the 3D printer is very favorable – the basic, original version costs less than €165, and higher versions up to €249 gross. Taking into account the quality of workmanship – you can’t go down any cheaper…
On the other hand, the Ender-3 has several disadvantages that become very problematic in the long term. Starting from the printing module and problems with the protruding Teflon tube leading the filament to the head, through a deregulating bed, and ending with a rather poor quality Bowden type extruder, which effectively hinders or prevents work with selected filaments (mainly flexible). If you want to take full advantage of the capabilities of a 3D printer at a level comparable to that of the much more expensive (and better) Prusa i3 or Prusa Mini, it is necessary to introduce a number of your own technological upgrades, which unfortunately significantly increase the original price of the device.
The new Creality Ender-3 S1 is going to solve most of the above and problems, and a lot of more that I have not mentioned. The first and most important change is the new Sprite direct extruder, which will allow more freedom in 3D printing from various materials and reduce problems with 3D printing in general – the earlier Creality extruder was really a very budget solution and any change could only be better.
The second change is two guides that control the Z axis – this solution was standard in the more expensive models of Creality 3D printers, from the CR series up and now goes to the cheapest models.
The third change is the module of automatic calibration of the print head in relation to the heatbed. Although at first glance the workbench itself remains structurally the same, adding auto-calibration will make the work much easier.
The fourth change is a new, 32-bit control electronics and a 4.3-inch screen for operating the 3D printer. Electronics make working with a 3D printer more reliable and quiet, and the touch screen is a more user-friendly UI compared to the clunky, monochrome screen operated by a knob.
The last important novelty is a metal pad on the work table, which makes it easier to remove 3D prints from the table.
Of course, all of the above novelties concern only the Creality Ender-3 S1 itself, as they are not any novelties in the strict sense … The vast majority of 3D printers – whether amateur or desktop ones, are equipped with at least some of the above-mentioned functionalities, so there is no revolution here. Nevertheless, considering that I am describing one of the absolutely cheapest devices on the market, the list of functionalities is impressive, after all.
Also it is worth adding that you can buy two interesting accessories for the Ender-3 S1: LED lighting, mounted on the top of the device and a laser engraving module.
At the moment, the European price of the 3D printer is EUR 399.00 gross, therefore it is more than 30% more expensive than the most expensive Ender-3 v2. The devices are to appear in Europe at the very end of December 2021, however, taking into account the turmoil on the eastern border of the EU, which translates into logistics from China, it would be reasonable to assume that the Ender-3 S1 will hit European store shelves only in January 2022 (and closer to the second half than the beginning of the month).
Source: Creality press release
