Zortrax Endureal – industrial, double-head 3D printer designed to work with high temperature materials

Today, Zortrax announced the premiere of Endureal – the third generation 3D printer, dedicated for highly specialized industrial and medical applications. It has working area of 40 x 30 x 30 cm, closed and heated chamber, two print heads and the ability to work with high temperature materials such as PEEK or carbon fiber reinforced. The machine is also packed with sensors examining the current progress of work in real time and guaranteeing uninterrupted operation.

Zortrax Endureal has solutions typical for industrial devices. The working chamber is closed and separated from the extruder, so you can heat its interior without overheating the drive and the filament pressing systems. There are two heads – one dedicated for building materials, the other for supporting. The components of the extruder that extrudes the filament and the wires through which it is conveyed are separated from the working chamber by means of a flexible thermal insulator with a pore size smaller than the average free path length of the air molecule.

The device can work with demanding thermoplastic materials such as PEEK or carbon fiber reinforced filaments. Regardless of them, Endureal also prints from Zortrax’s well-known filaments like Z-ULTRAT Plus, Z-NYLON and Z-PCABS. The filaments are located in a closed chamber, equipped with built-in moisture absorber, which is activated when the humidity exceeds the optimum level for materials susceptible to absorption from the environment. Dedicated sensors detecting jamming, depletion or material shortage are responsible for the correct supply of filaments to the extruder. Its quantity is checked on an ongoing basis by measuring the weight of the loaded reels.

The new machine has a working area of 40 x 30 x 30 cm, which is the largest area in the entire product offer of the company. The working platform is made of aluminum, on which is mounted a flexible tray made of ferrite steel, coated with a PEI layer, which ensures adequate adhesion of printed models, and at the same time allows them to be removed easily and quickly after work.

Zortrax Endureal is equipped with a number of sensors responsible for monitoring the machine’s operation:

• temperature sensors to prevent overheating of key components
• capacitive sensors checking the positioning of the heads relative to the working platform and supporting calibration
• optical sensors ensuring precise positioning of the extruder in all axes
• fan operation sensors detecting malfunction or disconnection of the fan to ensure adequate cooling
• extruder sensors checking that the extruder is connected and functional to ensure uninterrupted operation of the 3D printer.

The so-called Blackout Response System, responsible for the possibility of resuming operation of the machine in the event of a power outage, from exactly the same place where the failure occurred. Endureal uses the energy stored in the built-in capacitors to record the exact position of the printhead for a possible restart.