UM Materials Station, is it worth it?

[orangepeel 3]

Hi UM users, I am considering getting a Materials Station for our UMS5.  I am at a small texas university, on the coast, so we have high humidity all the time.  Also, we want to print a lot of TPU, nylon, and fiber-filled nylon filaments.  Right now we just dry our filament every few days, and we have a makeshift enclosure that somewhat slows down the ingress of moisture.

a) First question, if the room environment is about 60% humidity, will the materials station (if kept on) keep the humidity in where the filament is at, low enough so that we won't have to redry tpu or nylon, pva, etc?

b) Second question, setting aside the problems with pva, does the material station do what it is advertised to do?  I would like to keep some PLA, TPU, nylon, and ABS filament inside the Material Station, and just select them as needed.  

 

thoughts?  reccomendations?  Thanks ahead of time!

 

[DC852 0]

On 3/2/2020 at 6:33 PM, orangepeel said:

Hi UM users, I am considering getting a Materials Station for our UMS5.  I am at a small texas university, on the coast, so we have high humidity all the time.  Also, we want to print a lot of TPU, nylon, and fiber-filled nylon filaments.  Right now we just dry our filament every few days, and we have a makeshift enclosure that somewhat slows down the ingress of moisture.

a) First question, if the room environment is about 60% humidity, will the materials station (if kept on) keep the humidity in where the filament is at, low enough so that we won't have to redry tpu or nylon, pva, etc?

b) Second question, setting aside the problems with pva, does the material station do what it is advertised to do?  I would like to keep some PLA, TPU, nylon, and ABS filament inside the Material Station, and just select them as needed.  

 

thoughts?  reccomendations?  Thanks ahead of time!

 

b) the material station did really good on this function, once you select / npc the filament in the material station, they automatic selected the correct material of filament from the station.

But make sure you install the filament in the correct nozzle port and select the correct profile in cura while you slice the model.

 

The only problem I got with the material station, is that they do not have selection on color.

so I always accident print the wrong color when I have the same material filament in the material station.

 

[bagel-orb 61]

For materials with NFC tag the material is automatically detected, including colour.

[DC852 0]

5 hours ago, bagel-orb said:

For materials with NFC tag the material is automatically detected, including colour.

what about manually selected ones?

[bagel-orb 61]

No when you manually select a material there is no option to choose color.

[DC852 0]

13 minutes ago, bagel-orb said:

No when you manually select a material there is no option to choose color.

Are you guys thinking of adding this option or just think this is an dumb idea?

[bagel-orb 61]

I'm not in any way responsible for this part of the product, but I wouldn't say it's a dumb idea - I guess it's just not a high priority compared to other issues we are trying to solve.

[RudydG 62]

At a price almost in the range of total printer, for me the material station it is not an ideal option.

I manage all my materials manualy or in a polybox.

Pva, i just cut the needed length, or, for very big prints, from a polybox.

For other sensitive materials, a second or third polybox is used. (they are cheap and easy to use)

With a polybox i have the advantage to use large spools, which eliminates much of the filament switching because of end of roll situations.

If you buy this material station to reduce your downtimes, maybe better invest in a extra printer? I will buy another S3 (i have 1xUM3 and 1xUMS5)

Ofcourse this is my opinion.

Edited March 12, 2020 by RudydG

[DC852 0]

6 hours ago, RudydG said:

At a price almost in the range of total printer, for me the material station it is not an ideal option.

I manage all my materials manualy or in a polybox.

Pva, i just cut the needed length, or, for very big prints, from a polybox.

For other sensitive materials, a second or third polybox is used. (they are cheap and easy to use)

With a polybox i have the advantage to use large spools, which eliminates much of the filament switching because of end of roll situations.

If you buy this material station to reduce your downtimes, maybe better invest in a extra printer? I will buy another S3 (i have 1xUM3 and 1xUMS5)

Ofcourse this is my opinion.

I totally agree with your point, 

In my situation, my company order the ultimaker pro bundle for the look than usability, I rather to have 2 to 3 ultimaker S3 machine than the bundle.

[SandervG 1,521]

On 3/3/2020 at 12:33 AM, orangepeel said:

Hi UM users, I am considering getting a Materials Station for our UMS5.  I am at a small texas university, on the coast, so we have high humidity all the time.  Also, we want to print a lot of TPU, nylon, and fiber-filled nylon filaments.  Right now we just dry our filament every few days, and we have a makeshift enclosure that somewhat slows down the ingress of moisture.

a) First question, if the room environment is about 60% humidity, will the materials station (if kept on) keep the humidity in where the filament is at, low enough so that we won't have to redry tpu or nylon, pva, etc?

b) Second question, setting aside the problems with pva, does the material station do what it is advertised to do?  I would like to keep some PLA, TPU, nylon, and ABS filament inside the Material Station, and just select them as needed.  

 

thoughts?  reccomendations?  Thanks ahead of time!

 

 

Hello! 

 

a) Yes it would. Important nuance; it keeps your filament dry, it doesn't make it dry. If you put it in moist, it will have a hard time getting all that moist out. So depending on how it is stored, you may want to dry it before installing it in the material station. (or depending on how it is produced, you want to do that anyway). 

b) I would like to say yes, but I might be a bit biased. Based on what you wrote, you could install any of those materials in the material station. The material station keeps all your material ready to go, so to speak. So when you send a print job for Nylon, it knows Nylon is in bay 3 (for example), and will feed that material in your Ultimaker. When your print is finished, it will unload it again, ready for its next command. If it is a different material, if it is installed in the Material Station it will know where and load that material.