Phrozen Shuffle Review

Looking to buy the Phrozen Shuffle 3D printer? Read this guide to find out what you should expect of this resin 3D printer.

The Taiwanese company, Phrozen, is well known for its line of affordable SLA printers. These printers have a wide application in jewellery and dentistry and are popular with makers that love high-precision printing as well as resin manufacturers.

One of the Phrozen lines of printers is the Shuffle. In this guide, we’ll go through the specs, features, and quality of print to expect of the Phrozen Shuffle.

Let’s get started.

Phrozen Shuffle Review

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Unboxing the Phrozen Shuffle 3D Printer

When you order the printer, this is what you will get in the package:

• Phrozen Shuffle LCD 3D printer
• A funnel
• Wiper/scraper
• Gloves
• Blue connection cable
• Power cable
• Plastic spatula for mixing the resin
• Metal spatula for removing models from the print bed
• USB Wi-Fi adapter
• Network cable

One of the unique features of the Phrozen 3D printer is that the optical path of light stream is up to date with current technology. As a result, printing is done more accurately and faster over the whole printing area.

The interior and exterior parts of the printer are ell built. All the parts fit perfectly.

We also couldn’t help but notice the printer’s stable Z-axis design.  Unlike some competing printers that have cylindrical guide rails and unstable mounts, the Shuffle uses twin linear rail and ball screw with bearings.

Print Setup

Before you start printing with the Phrozen Shuffle, you need to level the bed. This is done for manually and takes about 5 minutes. The process is only done once, during the initial setup of the printer.

However, along the way, if you have issues with your printing, you can level the bed again.

Phrozen Shuffle Specs

Watch the video below for an overview of the printer:

Phrozen Shuffle Features

Design

The Phrozen SLA 3D printer has a black body and a red-tinted cover. This stylish printer can be used for engineering, dentistry and jewelry industries.

The printer measures 280 x 280 x 420 mm (11 x 11 x 16.5 inches) and weighs 16 kg (35 lb.)

The SLA 3D printer has a 2K LCD panel and proprietary optical module named ParaLED. The optical consists of dozens of focusing lenses and UV LED lights.

Build Volume

The Phrozen Shuffle resin 3D printer has a build volume of 120 x 68 x 200 mm (4.7 x 2.7 x 7.9 inches). While this space is not large, it is enough for printing small to medium-sized objects. If you want to print large models, you may need to print them several different parts and later join them.

Materials

The Phrozen Shuffle is a resin 3D printer that is compatible with resins from different brands. This way, you can be creative with your models and use any resin that will give you the best results.

Print Quality

The Phrozen Shuffle 3D printer is fully enclosed and has a dual Z-axis linear rail with a ball screw driver. The printer is well-built and highly precise.

The Shuffle prints layers at 10 microns. Therefore, you can be sure that your prints will be highly detailed. Check the level of detail realized in the model below printer using the Phrozen Shuffle:

The printer speed is average, realizing 3 cm per hour.

Here are other samples of models printed using the Phrozen Shuffle:

Printer Controls

The printer is run by the NanoDLP host/control software. The software allows the machine to be operated independently through the onboard LCD touchscreen.

You can also control the printer wireless over Wi-Fi or using your PC.

Connectivity

When it comes to connectivity and file transfer, the Phrozen Shuffle 3D printer can accept files through Wi-Fi or via a USB-tethered computer.

You can also insert your USB stick in the port at the back of the PC to launch your print.

Slicing Software

The Phrozen Shuffle uses NanoDLP software to slice 3D models directly onboard. The software works on the major OS platforms (Windows, MacOS and Linux) and supports a wide variety of file formats, including ZIP, SLC and STL.

After setting up the printer and are ready to print, you can prepare your 3D model for printing using slicer software. The recommended ones are PZ Slice, ChiTu and MeshMixer.

Warranty

All Phrozen products coms with a one-year warranty. However, components and consumables such as the building platform, FEP film, LCD screen and the paraLED are not covered by the one-year warranty.

The LCD screens for the Sonic 4K, Sonic Mini 4K, and the Sonic Mini have a 3-month warranty

Phrozen Shuffle vs Shuffle Lite

The Phrozen Shuffle and Shuffle Lite have similar features and mostly work in the same way. In this section, we’ll highlight some few differences between the printers.

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To begin, let’s start with the technical specifications.

Light Source

Both printers use LCD-SLA technology. The printers have an LED panel made of ultraviolet diodes that produce the light needed to fuse the liquid resin. Above the LED panel is an LCD matrix that displays the printed layers. The matrix is  5.5 inches and has a resolution 2560 by 1440 pixels. That is, the XY accuracy is 47 micrometers.

The light source is the proprietary ParaLED 2.0 system.

The ParaLED is a 50-watt LED panel with special lenses installed above it. The light wave produced hardens the resin during the printing process.

Z-axis

The main difference between the Shuffle and Shuffle Lite is how the Z-axis is implemented.

In the Shuffle 2019, the Z-axis along two MGN15 rails between which there is a 12 mm ball screw. The maximum print height is 20cm.

On the other hand, the Shuffle Lite has just one MGN15 rail and a regular 8mm single thread threaded shaft. With this printer, the maximum height is 17 cm.

Print Bed

Both 3D printers have a milled aluminum print bed.  The platform is attached to the Z-axis carriage with one wing.

Outer Case

The Shuffle 2019 has a steel casing on top, as well as a steel lid that folds upward by the handle. In front, there is a small window made of red transparent plastic.

On the other hand, the Shuffle Lite has a much simpler top. The printer is covered from above with a transparent cap made of the same red plastic.

The transparent cap allows you to monitor the printing process, saving you from the need to lift the cover. Moreover, you can see the print bed from all sides.

With the Shuffle, the steel body only allows you to see the print process from the front.

Metal Bath

Both printers have a metal bath with a cutout for easy drainage of resin. The film is already installed.

Bottom

At the bottom, the printers look pretty much the same. At the back are the power cord connector with fuse and on / off button. Two USB ports, an RJ-45 connector for connecting to a local area network, an exhaust fan and a small hole covered with a transparent film, hiding behind it is a microSD card, which contains the printer’s operating system, but more on that later.

On the right is the supply fan.

And on the front, the printers have a large touchscreen display.

Phrozen printers run the Linux-like operating system, Phrozen OS.

In addition to classic printing using a USB flash drive, the printer has a full-fledged Web interface, i.e., you can connect them via Wi-Fi and send your prints.

Through it, you can send sliced ​​files, start them for printing, monitor the printing process and stop it if necessary.

You can also create print profiles for different resins. Therefore, after saving a model in the printer, you can print it with different resins, simply by selecting the required profile before sending it to print.

The only thing is that the height of the sliced ​​model layer corresponds to the height of the layer in the profile.

Wrapping Up

The only thing is that the height of the sliced ​​model layer corresponds to the height of the layer in the profile.

Like almost any photopolymer printer, the Shuffle 2019 and Lite need to be calibrated before first printing. This is also done quite standardly. Loosen the 4 platform screws.

Make sure she can move freely. Put one A4 sheet or 4 pieces of A4 sheet on the screen in the corners of the screen. Through the printer menu, go to the Z-axis and click on the round point, which is to the right between the two arrows.

Confirm that there is no bath or foreign objects on the screen. Wait until the Z-axis is lowered. Press down the platform slightly at the corners and tighten the screws.

The sheet of paper should be evenly pressed against the screen and not move. Next, you need to confirm the completion of the calibration, the platform will go up and that’s it. Calibration completed.

Phrozen has its own slicer – PZSlice. But to call it good, the language does not turn. Even from the loading screen itself, you can see that it has very big problems with the design, everything looks clumsy and not neat.

The functionality of the slicer is minimal, and the existing functions are very inconvenient to use. It, of course, works and performs its main tasks, but I don’t want to use it at all.

The files are exported in phz format. In fact, this is just a renamed archive, which contains the pictures of the layers, a preview picture of the model that will be displayed on the printer screen and in the WEB interface, and a gcode file with commands, what to bring up and for how long to turn it on.

When using such files, you can use both the settings specified in PZSlice and select profiles in the printer itself.

One of the most popular free slicers, Chitubox, can also be used. The latest versions have pre-installed profiles for Phrozen printers.

The only thing is, Chitubox saves files in ZIP format. In the case of using such files, the printer will not see the settings for exposure time and speed of movements from the slicer. You can only select a profile from the memory of the printer itself.

You also need to select a profile corresponding to the layer height specified in the slicer.

There is another slicer that supports Phrozen printers – Formware, which is good and fast. The support in it is perhaps one of the best in general. But, unfortunately, it is paid.

Within a month, you can use it for free to check, and then you have to pay. But in our opinion, it’s worth it. By the way, with the Phrozen Sonic printer there is already a license for this slicer.

Let’s move on to examples of printing.

Initially, we planned to print the same models on two printers, but it quickly became clear that there was no point in this. Printers print exactly the same. Perhaps when printing to the whole table, double rail guides and ball screws will play a role, but when printing small models, there is no difference.

The first resin we tried on Phrozen printers was ESun Hard-Tough Resin.

According to the manufacturer, this resin should have high strength and properties comparable to ABS-plastic. We did not check its physical and mechanical properties, so let’s just look at the quality. Shuffle 2019 printed knobs for encoders and one more detail, its purpose is not known to us.

Layer 0.05mm, exposure time of the first layers is 60 seconds, all the rest 7 seconds. The pens were printed simultaneously 6 pieces, standing directly on the table without supports. Their quality is beyond praise.

The ribbing is neat and clear. The surfaces are smooth, the slopes are even.

The resin itself is beautiful blue, slightly transparent and pleasant to the touch.

The second detail is much more complicated, it was printed at an angle on supports.

At the very bottom, where the model began to be printed on the supports, there is a slight distortion of the geometry, but this is not a problem of the printer and not even the resin. Technical models with smooth edges are generally quite difficult to print on photopolymer printers so that everything is smooth.

The planes that were on the supports, naturally, also turned out not very nice, but this is also to be expected.

In such places, careful post-processing is required.

But everything that is on top and on the sides turned out just great: the surfaces are smooth, all the edges are even and clear, the holes are neat, the layers are laid very evenly.

A beetle was printed on Lite. With a 0.1mm layer, the exposure time of the first layers is also 60 seconds, the remaining 9 seconds.

In general, the exposure time was chosen almost at random, it is possible that it could be exposed even less. But it turned out great too. The beetle was also printed obliquely on the supports. There are small elements on the legs, each of which had to be supported.

And it was quite difficult to remove these supports. But as a result, nothing superfluous broke off. Of course, traces of the supports remain, but there are not many of them.

In some places, transitions between layers are visible, but the layer is 0.1mm, so this is not surprising. In general, the beetle also turned out well. The printer coped with the task 100%.

Then we switched to HarzLabs resins. We had almost the entire line of dental resins of this company at our disposal. We have tried some of them. They printed not only dental models, but, of course, they could not do without them.

Exposure times for all HarzLabs resins on Phrozen printers are available on the HarzLabs official website. For this reason, we will not indicate them for each model.

If you are interested, you can view them by following the link . All models shown below were printed with a layer of 0.05mm.

And so, Dental Peach resin .

It should be well suited for printing dental demo models, master models and vacuum formed aligners. Lite has printed a master model with a tooth and crown, which are printed separately.

The model printed well, the surfaces are very smooth, the edges are crisp. The supports were placed in the Chitubox slicer with the “Light” preset. The supports survived, in places where the model was just starting to be printed, there is a slight distortion of the geometry, but this did not affect the main part. Perhaps it made sense to add stronger support in these places.

We have already printed this model on other printers and we know that the tooth should be inserted normally, and the crown should be put on it without any problems. So, in general, it happened.

Shuffle 2019 printed a blank for molding an aligner with this resin. There were no problems with her either.

This model was prepared in the Formware slicer, the supports are placed in automatic mode very well, although you still need to check them.

Also, this slicer can make an interesting raft, which has the name of the model file.

And another extremely interesting test was performed with this resin at Shuffle 2019. The dentist sent us models that we printed in two positions, standing upright and tilted at 35-40 degrees.

After that, the models were scanned and checked against the original files in a special program.

 

The screenshots show that there are some deviations, especially for the vertically printed model.

But the models printed at an angle were rated by the dentist as at least a solid 4.

A model of a female pilot was printed on Lite with Dental Pink resin.

On the surface of the model, there was a coating of semi-hardened resin, which had to be washed off with a brush. Apparently, this is a stray flare, as we said, the settings were used from the HarzLabs website. At the same time, such a problem was not noticed with other resins, apparently this is the specificity of this particular resin.

Also later it turned out that the model itself is not very good quality and has a lot of artifacts on the surfaces. In general, the girl turned out fine. The detail is not bad, but not perfect either. Small elements turned out to be a little blurry.

On Shuffle 2019, this resin was printed with a master model with 3 teeth that were to be inserted into it.

Teeth fell into place with difficulty and not completely. But after a little processing, the dremel were inserted normally.

Dental Cast Cherry was the next to try . We have no opportunity to burn out and cast metal products. But we printed models that were created precisely in order to burn them later. A clasp prosthesis was printed at Shuffle 2019.

This is a rather complex model with subtle elements and small details. The prosthesis was printed perfectly, everything was kept on the supports, all the details are in place.

The resin is slightly soft after printing, making it easier to remove the supports.

After removing them and re-illuminating, we walked a little over the model with a dremel to remove traces. As a result, we got such a model, and in our opinion, it turned out well.

This resin is called Dental and is more suitable for dental models, but still we tried to print several rings with it on Lite.

5 different rings were printed at the same time.

Small traces of the supports remained on the models, but in general the rings turned out great. The detail is very good, all small and thin elements are printed.

If you have had the experience of burning out such a resin, write about it in the comments, it will be very interesting for us to know how it manifests itself in its main purpose.

And the last HarzLabs resin we tried is  Dental Sand A1-A2. A1-A2 stands for Vita color matching. This material should be suitable for printing temporary crowns and bridges, but we do not have such models. Therefore, they just printed an artistic model.

The Mandalorian from the eponymous TV series printed excellently on Shuffle 2019.

The detailing on such a light resin is poorly visible, but there are no very small elements on the Mandalorian, and upon closer inspection, it is clear that all the elements are printed well, the layers are uniform over the entire height.

Lite printed two samurai in gray Wanhao resin , they differ only in the weapon in hand. The exposure time was chosen literally at random – 80 seconds for the first layers and 7 seconds for all the others. This was enough for my head.

The detailing is very visible on this resin. Even the smallest elements were printed perfectly.

Let’s move on to the results.

First, a few words about HarzLabs resins . We liked them, they don’t smell very much. Stability and repeatability of results at altitude. Pigments hardly settle. Among the minuses noticed, strange stray flare on Dental Pink. Some colors change slightly when exposed to exposure under a strong UV source.

As for the Phrozen printers, as expected, they print about the same as their competitors with similar specifications. The proprietary design of Paraled 2.0 with a unique lens system that provides clear uniform illumination across the entire print area favorably differs from the cheaper Phrozen printers. I was also impressed by the advanced convenient software filling, which allows you to store print profiles directly in the printer and use them for already cut models.

If we talk about the difference between the Lite and 2019 versions, we did not notice any significant differences in the quality of the printed models. However, the Shuffle 2019 is structurally made more reliable and in the process of prolonged intensive use this will affect the durability of the printer.

An important difference directly involved in the printing process is the design of the Z axis. But even with one rail on the Lite, there were absolutely no problems. Layers are stacked evenly on both printers. Well, the print height for 2019 is slightly higher.

As a result, printers have proven to be reliable, stable devices that perform their tasks over and over again. It is not for nothing that they have already proven themselves well in the professional segment. The print quality is excellent, and the speed is almost on par with printers in the higher price category.

Models from the video:

Beetle – https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3705226

Pilot Girl – https://www.myminifactory.com/ru/object/3d-print-the-cheerful-pilot-92818

Lion ring – https://www.myminifactory.com/object/3d-print-lion-ring-for-comp-19926

Snake Ring – https://www.myminifactory.com/object/3d-print-orm-ring-19737

Crown Ring – https://www.myminifactory.com/object/3d-print-crown-ring-34637

Stone ring – https://www.myminifactory.com/object/3d-print-ring-with-oval-stone-31353

Clasp prosthesis https://grabcad.com/library/digital-dental-rpd-design

Mandalorian – https://www.prusaprinters.org/prints/13510-mandalorian-baby-yoda-christmas-manger-scene

Generally, there is no significant difference between the Shuffle and Shuffle Lite 3D printers. There are no major differences in the quality of the prints. However, the Shuffle is more robust and reliable. Therefore, it will last longer over intensive use.

Also, the printers are different in the Z-axis design. The Shuffle has two rails while the Lite has one rail. However, despite the Lite having one rail, we did not encounter any printing problems.  The layers are stacked evenly on both printers.

Finally, the print height of the Shuffle is 20 cm while that of the Lite is 17 cm.

Both printers are reliable and stable. They print high-quality models and their speed is almost on par with printers in the higher price category.

Phrozen Shuffle Price

The Phrozen Shuffle costs just under $1500 (check current price here). We find this to be an affordable price considering the functionality and print resolution that the machine achieves.

Phrozen Shuffle Review: Our Verdict

The Phrozen Shuffle resin 3D printer is practical and has a functional design. The printer produces high-quality models and is quite affordable, compared to printers with similar specifications.

From our tests, the Phrozen Shuffle is one of the best resin 3D printers on the market. We recommend this printer to dentists, jewelers, or other makers that need precisely and accurately printed prototypes.

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