3NTR Spectral 30 - FDM 3D printer

3NTR (Industrial Grade 3D printers) is an Italian industrial company with more than 60 years of experience in the industrial automation market. Among its most outstanding products are a series of industrial grade 3D printers, designed to obtain maximum performance in intensive use, being able to work in 24/7 cycles.

Within its catalogue is 3NTR Spectral 30, an industrial FDM 3D superpolymer printer optimised to guarantee the 3D printing of high-performance advanced materials, offering extraordinary results. This industrial 3D printing equipment has been developed as part of the 2018 European Commission Clean Sky Project jointly with Rescoll and Airbus. The Spectral 30 3D printer has been validated by Rescoll as medically compliant. It is also apt for 3D printing for the food, medical and aerospace industries with the adequate certified materials.

Video 1: FDM Spectral 30 3D printer printing PEI Ultem. Source: 3NTR.

The 3NTR Spectral 30 3D printer works with FDM/FFF (Fused filament fabrication) printing technology, and uses thermoplastic materials to produce 3D models with a quality close to that of injection moulded parts.  This industrial 3D printer stands out for its ease of use, minimal maintenance and for not requiring calibrations once installed.

Multi-material 3D printer

Spectral 30 stands out from other 3NTR 3D printing equipment due to its capabilities and multiple extrusion technology. 3NTR Spectral 30 has four extruders, allowing it to 3D print highly complex parts using different build materials combined with breakaway or soluble support materials. The compatible materials from the 3NTR portfolio are Ultem AM9085F, Ultem1010F, Igildur, PEEK, PEKK, PAEK, ABS HD, ABS, ABS ESD, ABS Fast, nPower, ASA, PC-ABS, Carbon+,Glass+, Nylon+ and the SSU support materials.

Image 1: The Spectral 30 3D printer is equipped with 4 nozzles and an active heated chamber. Source: 3NTR.

The 3NTR Spectral 30 Industrial 3D printer reaches an extrusion temperature of 500ºC and a bed temperature of up to 300ºC. In addition, it has a heated chamber, which can reach 250 ºC. Thanks to these features, Spectral 30 can maintain a very high temperature constantly, making it possible to process very high performance polymers such as PEEK, PEKK, PEI Ultem or PPS. 

Image 2: Parts printed with the Spectral 30 with high-performance polymers and supporting filaments. Source: 3NTR.

Advanced materials and high-performance polymers are often very difficult to 3D print. Having a heated chamber is a key tool to obtain optimal part adhesion and a great surface finish, preventing temperature changes from affecting the printing process and thus reducing the dreaded warping effect.

When printing advanced materials such as those mentioned above, it is necessary to bear in mind that they are often hygroscopic materials, which degrade or lose properties as they absorb moisture before being processed. For this reason, Spectral 30 has four integrated Vento units, which allow the filament to dry and keep it in its optimum state to ensure the best print quality. These drying units are compatible with filament spools of up to 5 kg, offering great versatility.

Image 3: Vento drying system. Source: 3NTR.

To speed up the manufacturing flow, this equipment can reach chamber temperatures for materials such as PEI Ultem in less than 30 minutes, while nozzles can reach their maximum temperature in less than 3 minutes.

High performance and intensive use

3NTR Spectral 30 offers a build volume of 300 x 300 x 300 mm, an XYZ mechanical precision of 0.005 mm, and a layer height of 0.1-0.6 mm, enabling it to print parts of exceptional quality and making it one of the most accurate industrial FFF/FDM 3D printers on the market.

This equipment has a number of advanced features and functionalities that make intensive use possible:

• Magnetic printing surface/vacuum system: The magnetic printing surface facilitates the removal of parts. In addition, this equipment has an automatic levelling system that guarantees optimum calibration in each production process.
• Liquid cooling system: This equipment incorporates a liquid cooling system for the extruders that provides very precise control over the extruders.
• End of filament and jam detection: These systems detect the end of the material spool, as well as jam detection, avoiding possible errors and failed prints.
• 10" screen: Thanks to its large screen and its intuitive interface, this equipment allows a very complete handling through the navigation of its different menus.

Video 2: The interface features of the Spectral 30. Source: 3NTR.

Among other standard functionalities such as leveling, axis selection, feedrate, program selection and printer configuration, the interface of the Spectral 30 3D printer allows the user to render models when idle or when printing, turn on the chamber light, open and close the chamber door, release the build tray, perform hotend maintenance, and much more.

Monitoring and security

Unlike other 3NTR equipment, 3NTR Spectral 30 integrates as standard all the necessary tools and functionalities to monitor the entire manufacturing process and control it from start to finish.

Spectral 30 includes an integrated webcam that allows remote monitoring of the press and the printing process. On the other hand, the SSI software allows to obtain the desired final results in a simpler way, avoiding basic errors thanks to the prediction and blocking of errors by SSI. This software can also provide detailed documents with all the data collected during the printing process. 

Image 4: 3NTR 3D printer range. Source: 3NTR.

Unlike other industrial machines on the market, the 3NTR Spectral 30 allows parts to be made from the widest variety of in-house and third-party materials. The Spectral 30 3D printer offers exceptional performance and quality, which makes makes it suitable for a wide range of prototyping as well as final production applications in sectors such as defense, aerospace, medical, food, oil&gas, aggressive chemical environments or high temperature environments.