Anker, known for phone chargers and smart home products, is working on a 3D printer that is faster than the competition. Rolling something out of the 3d printer often costs a lot of time and money, but the AnkerMake M5 may change this.
For a converted amount of at least 552 euros, excluding VAT, you can support Anker on kickstarter†That is the place where the company decided to present this product. The manufacturer then supplies some accessories and parts for which you normally pay extra. Think of a webcam, with which you can monitor the printer remotely, make time-lapse videos and have the printer automatically pause when it senses something goes wrong.
Faster than the competition
Most importantly, however, is the claim that this 3d printer works up to five times faster than the competition. You don’t have to dive into the settings for a second. You take the two halves out of the box, screw them together and put all the cables in the openings and from that moment it is possible to print at a speed of 250 millimeters per second. Compared to the quality setting of market leader Prusa MK3S+, it is indeed five times faster.
People with a 3d printer have known this for a long time. But if you want to print large objects, it can just take a day. Since the Anker printer is thus up to five times faster, a product can be ready for use within a few hours. Of course this depends on what you print and how big that thing is; some small objects are always turned out quickly. The maximum size of products is 235 by 235 by 250 millimeters. This is completely in line with the market standard.
Using Anker’s 3d printer
Commissioning the Anker printer should be very simple. If you have or download a design yourself, you can send it directly to the internal storage space of 8 GB. This can be done via WiFi, but also via the cloud. Then the AnkerMate M5 takes over; the user does not need to use a slicer app to translate a design into printer code. Instead, it is simply download or create, send and print. A child can do the laundry.
Now the question is whether Anker will make it to the promised release month of September. Because many things work or are not there yet. Think of the necessary software (which is so important), the error detection during printing and the support for voice assistants.
The hardware is almost finished, but the company has yet to start on the software. While that hardware looks promising, it’s just that: a promise. Whether Anker will redeem it is now the big question.
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