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Today we will tell you about the TierTime UP300 printer, which was first introduced to users in April 2018 at the TCT + Rapid show in the USA. This is a desktop 3D printer in a closed case, which can be classified as a professional class.
The UP300 has become a logical continuation of the UP BOX / UP BOX + line of printers, retaining some of the distinctive features of this model, but in general it is a completely new model in the TierTime line of printers.
The UP300 is a large, closed metal structure. This contributes to the successful printing of ABS and other temperature sensitive plastics. The heavy metal case holds the printer securely in place, compared to 30kg without packaging. against 20 kg. at UP BOX +.
As with previous TierTime desktop printers, everything related to printing is safely hidden inside, away from careless user movements. Unfortunately, you can still see that all extruder bodies are 3D-printed, but in a sense, this is already a “chip” of the manufacturer.
The main highlight of the UP300 is the presence of three replacement extruders in the kit, designated as “ABS” (installed by default), “PLA” and “TPU”. Each one is for different types of plastic: high temperature, low temperature and flexible.
TierTime says it’s easy to replace the extruder. Check it out!
- Disconnect the loop from the extruder that is currently installed (ABS by default)
- Unscrew the M4 screw in the left rear part of the extruder
- Insert a new extruder until you hear a characteristic click (thanks to the guide magnet)
- Screw the M4 screw back
- We connect the loop
In our opinion, it is really simple. However, it is important that with each such change, you need to change the configurations in the TierTime UP Studio slicer.
Also the UP300 delivery set includes 3 additional nozzles with diameters 0.2 mm, 0.4 mm. and 0.6 mm. Standard 0.4mm nozzle for ABS and PLA printing. 0.6mm nozzle for high grade printing and smallest 0.2mm nozzle. for high-precision printing.
The size of the printing table in the UP300 is 205x255x225 mm, and another unique feature of this printer is the presence of two double-sided printing platforms in the delivery set.
The first platform has a glass surface on one side, and on the back there is a special surface for printing with low-temperature and flexible plastics.
The second table is also glass on one side and is designed for printing with high-temperature plastics, such as ABS and NYLON, for this, on the other side, the surface is perforated. This gives a high level of adhesion, which is typical for ABS printing.
The special UP300 “bun” with easily replaceable printing tables works. The table easily slides out of the rails with a characteristic sound.
The slow touchscreen certainly spoils the experience. It is convenient to work with it armed with a stylus, but, alas, it is not included in the kit.
Most of the printer’s functions and print settings are easier to manage through UP Studio using a Wi-Fi connection. However, even here the software response speed has pumped up a bit, so be patient.
Preparing for printing in UP Studio software will not cause any difficulties even for beginners, because all settings are hidden as far as possible from users. The desire to dig deeper into the settings is not useful here.
For example, the print speed option: Normal, Fine, Fast, and Turbo. There are no specific parameters and settings for it, all this is hardwired into the material manager, hidden from view, in contrast to traditional print settings.
The software interface is really intuitive; the names of the speeds do not require additional decoding. Printing in Fine mode is the slowest, but the most accurate, the risk of defects on the surface of the model is minimal. Turbo, the best name for print modes, prints quickly. Really fast. And, surprisingly, it doesn’t result in the dramatic drop in print quality you might expect.
It is possible that the Tiertime slicer engine handles numbers better and produces unusual head trajectories, which gives the UP300’s lightning speed.
The slicer has shrink compensation options. There are two options for correcting distortion when printing on the UP300. You need to print a model with four “L” -shaped turrets. Using a caliper, we measure and enter the data into the appropriate fields in UPStudio, on the basis of which the UP300 will make corrections in subsequent prints.
Alternatively, if you want to make a quick setup without waiting for a test print and subsequent measurement, you can enter the expected and actual dimensions – which the UP300 can also use later. During testing, we found that this method does not give 100% of the result, but it definitely corrects the dimensions in the right direction.
In general, this feature brings the UP300 closer to professional printers for prototyping and making functional models, but the material profile manager narrows down your experiments with settings a little.
To make the small adjustments necessary to set up a new material profile, we had to copy the existing material profile, define the main attributes: temperature, filament density, shrinkage rate, and then add nozzle sub-profiles, each with its own sub-profile that matches the ones mentioned above. print quality options.
Considering that the UP300 is still at the beginning of its life cycle, there are no resources for downloading pre-tested material profiles (or at least we are not aware of them). So get ready to spend some time setting up your profiles.
The UP300 has focused on a hardware solution for reliable printing from a variety of materials. Replaceable extruders for every type of material instead of a universal extrusion system. This solution makes the printer as versatile as possible for solving various problems and obtaining the highest quality results for printing with different materials, and also contributes to obtaining high-quality finishing surfaces that do not require post-processing.
The UP300 box contains three extruders: ABS, PLA, and TPU. Each of them is precisely tuned to work with the characteristics of the specified groups of materials. The heating module for all 3 extruders is the same, but with slight adjustment.
The whole difference is in the heating channel. The heater module uses stainless steel tubing for ABS and PTFE lined tubing for PLA and TPU.
Different cooling requirements for plastics have been taken into account. The least cooling is used for ABS. PLA requires the most cooling for the nozzle and is fed to the heat sink and extruder motor to prevent premature filament softening. Extruder cooling for TPU is less than for PLA, but more than for ABS.
Using a specific nozzle for different plastics gave a positive result. For TPU 0.5mm, and for ABS and PLA 0.2, 0.4 or 0.6mm.
All of these extruders actually work. There are no oddities or “bumps” in use. We change the extruder and move on.
Another important advantage of this printer is the presence of a double air filtration system, consisting of a HEPA filter and an additional carbon filter, which makes it the safest desktop printer on the market.
As a result, I would like to say that the UP300 has an adequate price and decent functionality, surpassing its analogues in many respects. It has performed well in ABS printing thanks to its excellent thermoregulation in a closed housing, while the development of new extruders for other plastics makes it a versatile machine.
