South Korean company Stellamove, Inc. offers an automatic filament changing system for the Ender-3 3D printers (We wonder if the solution could work with the Creality CR-5 Pro H 3D printers). It’s now available for pre-order and supports up to eight filaments during one working cycle.
According to the project description and developer commentary, the devices will be a more affordable alternative to the Palette splicers made by Canadian company Mosaic Manufacturing, while the working principle is closer to the MMU systems developed by Josef Prusa and his team. In this solution, the filaments are not joined together, but instead one is replaced by another after being fully unloaded from the extruder. The system allows for automatic color changing during the printing process.
The system is rather simple: one mechanism acts as a switch between the materials and feeds a selected filament to the collector. The filament is pushed through it to the main feeding mechanism and then into a hotend, asis the case in any Bowden extruder. During the process of laying the plastic, the extrusion motors are working simultaneously, providing a better push.
The main problem of these devices is that they are officially compatible only with the stock versions of Ender-3 Pro and Ender-3 V2 3D printers. Theoretically, they can be used with other devices, provided they have open-source firmware and Bowden-style extruders. But the developers don’t guarantee successful results in this case, although they mention planning to increase the list of compatible machines in the future.
The devices could be pre-ordered early for $420 without shipping. Delivery is planned for the beginning of 2022.
