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There is got to be a major line of difference between the printers titled with normal numeric suffixes and those Printer bots titled with Scara prefixes.
But, since, Potterbot hasn’t come out with a line of difference themselves, that explains the difference, we would only have to guess. V1 is actually the short name of 3D Potterbot Scara Mini V1.
In case you are wondering how do we know about it? Well, we have gone through their website. And if you wish to do so, you too can.
The other thing that you also get to know by visiting Potterbot’s website is that Scara Mini V4 is actually the fourth version of this Mini V1 printer.
But of course, for questions like,” where, then are the other three versions?” the manufacturers are not bound to give you an explanation!
There is also a visible difference in the way Potterbots explains the printers with numeric as the suffix of their name and printers with Scara as the prefix of their name.
And you can get to see that, when you click on the name of any printer and when a separate webpage opens up for the explanation.
In this article, we are going to attempt to give you out an in-depth review of Potterbot Scara Mini V1. Like our every printer review article we will start with Features, followed by Specifications, Price, and so on.
Features
There is definitely some story behind the name Deltabot which appears on your search list every time you try to search about any of the models of these printers.
But, again, what is it, we do not know. All we know is when you combine Scara Mini V1 with continuous flow hopper you can 3D print with these printer structures as big as walls! Isn’t that amazing?
Something that the company has actually done is, not limiting 3D printing’s idea only to nuances.
They have made fantastic use of the already available engineering ideas and combined them with 3D printing.
So, when you click on the “Continuous Flow,” option, you get to see that nozzles and all are fine to print something on your table.
But, when it comes to printing on street objects with clay, mud, etc, wouldn’t it be great if you can have an exterior arrangement that will enable our users to go beyond the normal thinking of printing pots and antiques for art museums?
It’s almost as if a whole new dimension has been added to 3D printing by the company’s gift i.e. continuously flowing hopper.
Now, to reveal the secret, the continuous flowing hopper is pretty much as the name suggests it to be.
It is a huge tank in which you can load a great amount of material of clay or any other that you wish to 3D print with and there is a facility by which you can attach this equipment with the 3D printer.
And boom! What all you can print, is shown in the Scara Gallery option under the info tab of the website.
Eccentric User interface
In terms of interaction, the company has really made sure their offering is the next level to most of the average 3D printers.
Main-stream 3D printing companies that we have heard about, offer wi-fi control or Internet control, but we haven’t come across a company that offers such an interface wherein all you need is a browser to access your 3D printer until we carefully read the Potterbot website.
Yes! this thing is called the Duet Web Control which is used as a fully developed interface for Scara Mini V1.
What this essentially means is that you no longer need to figure out the device that you are using for interacting with the 3D printer.
All you need to care about is whether that device can access a browser or not. Because, if it can, it can let you interact with your Scara Mini V1.
Continuous Monitoring of Print Process
All you need to know about the status is to start the print process.
Because once it is started, the browser that you are interacting from, with your Scara Mini V1 is going to show in-depth information about Layer times, estimated time remaining for the remaining layers, file information. You can also know about the print speed as well as the extrusion speed and they can be controlled in real-time using this facility. So, say you have got to complete a 3D printing task in some amount of time.
By using this service, you can know the exact time it is going to take, thereby you will be able to know the exact time when to start at.
So, mass production of parts or just simple delivery times can be measured if you are interested in doing the business of pottery or ceramic 3D printing.
No backlash or jittery movements while printing
As mentioned on the company’s website, Scara Mini V1 is no souped-up 3D printer, instead, it is a dedicated heavy-duty purpose-built Printrbot.
So, the main drives of this Printrbot are sophisticated harmonic drive units which are the same drives used on large industrial robots similar.
Remember those huge ones that you have seen in most of the large manufacturing facilities? Similar ones at your home, in your desktop 3D printer!
The huge benefit of these drives is that these are extremely heavy duty and capable of precision movement down into the fractions of a second of a degree.
These drives convert into very precise prints with no backlash or jittery movements at realistic speeds.
So, what you get as a result is, no more vibration or issue at the point when 3D printing is actually running on.
Because these drives are designed for generating maximum rigidity with extreme accuracy.
After having shared some of the features of this printer, let us share the Specifications of this extremely useful 3D printer.
Specifications
Printing Envelope of 3D Potterbot Scara Mini V1 is 1473mm in the X, 1473mm in the Y-axis, and 584 mm in the Z-axis.
The overall dimension of this 3D printer is 762 mm in width, 304mm in length, and 1625mm in height. Now you get to know how this 3D printer is capable of building walls like big structures.
According to the claims by the company, you need 914 mm space along the X-axis, 762 mm along the Y-axis, and 1955 mm along the Z-axis.
The printer’s height to the top of the extruder when fully extended is 1778 mm. The printer’s average speed ranges from 30 to 100 mm per second according to the quality of a part or functional prototype needed to print.
The power supply Output is 24V 15 amps, whereas the power supply Input is 110-220V, 50-60 Hertz.
The power consumption of this printer is 24V ~10 amps, ~240 Watt, the main controller board of the printer runs with Duet3D with Arm SAM4E8E: 120MHz ARM Cortex-M4.
After having shared the features and specifications of this fantastic piece of technology, we are now to share with you the price at which this printer is marketed, by the company.
Price
On its website, the printer is priced at $16500. But it is not necessary that you buy this printer only from its website, you can do that from other websites such as 3D printing store, Clay-king, etc.
However, you would need to pay extra. There is one more way to buy this 3D printer i.e. from the distributors of this company’s 3D printers.
There is a complete list of the company’s distributor given on its website, you can navigate to the Info tab to find that option.
First Impression
Credit: 3dpotter.com
As per the claims made on the company’s website, Scara Mini V1 is able to achieve high precision and accuracy with this large Scara arm robot only through diligent design and robust construction techniques.
The company goes on to say that majority of this structure is made out of heavy aircraft grade 6061 aluminum utilizing CNC and welded components for maximum strength and rigidity.
Whereas the main rail components are from IGUS which is one of the leading German manufacturers of precision guide rails.
Speaking of the inside mechanism that runs these rails, the company claims how the drive motors consist of very sophisticated hybrid closed-loop stepper motors that have onboard computers with telemetry that continually update their position for zero error positioning.
Setup
The printer comes in a box in which, with the printer you get Closed Loop stepper on all the X, Y, and Z extruders.
You also get a 2000ml extruder with two tubes that you can use up. There are five anodized nozzles starting from 3mm, ranging to 8mm.
The part of the box contains Alan key set, grease, Acme driver tool, tie wraps, and extra screws.
There is also a power supply as well as the USB cable, although, you can control the printer easily without the need of all of that, with a simple device that has access to browsers.
Printing Type/Cost
The Scara Mini V1 uses similar to FDM 3D printing the material extrusion technique.
Although the technique has generated some excellent results in terms of quality with other materials, it does manage to generate excellent results with ceramic and Potterbot’s ceramic 3D printers.
Sharing about the printing cost, everything starting from the electricity to the print speed that you use for printing 3D part or functional prototype, to its infill percentage accounts for the complete 3D printing cost. So, it is a variable that will be difficult to generalize.
Print Quality
Credit: precise3dhub.com
There is a separate option under the Information tab that says Scara Gallery which will show you the Instagram structures printed using Scara printers and they are very impressive.
Overall, the area that they state they print and the kind of usability the company has shown in printing structures is a thing they should be credited to.
Such structures have propelled many researchers to believe that infrastructures can be developed using these 3D printers. So, the print quality is highly accurate and precise.
Sharing about the small objects that are also build using this 3D printer, art structures with dimensional accuracy and good surface finish can be created using this 3D printer.
If you see the picture that is shown in the description on the website, you get to know how intricate detailing can be done in parts very easily using this 3D printer.
Software
There are three software recommendations given on the company’s website namely:
- Potterware if you want entry-level experience.
- Fusion 360 and Simplify3D if you want entry to medium level experience.
Customer Service
There are multiple ways in which you can contact the company. The first and the easiest one is to get in touch with them via phone, the contact information is mentioned on the Contact tab on the website of the manufacturer.
The other way is to write to them via email. In case you have purchased the 3D printer from any of the company’s distributor, you can get in touch with the distributor and they would get in touch with the company.
The company even takes a guaranty for the part that it sends to you for a specific period of time, to know how much time exactly for which printer, you can ask the company or the distributor that you are buying from.
Parameters Influencing Buying Decision
Few factors that will matter to you while purchasing this printer are mentioned below.
3D Printer Cost: Affordable.
3D Print Quality: Commendable.
3D Print Speed: Industry standard.
3D Printer Capability: Even plastic-like materials can be 3D printed using the printer.
3D Printer Practicality: Universities, as well as institutions, are primarily where this printer is used.
3D Printer User Expectations: Users can expect a good quality print at a reasonable time.
The Verdict
If this 3D printer is used creatively, it can be worth a lot more than what it is priced at.
