Printable Build Volume
Today, let's take a closer look at the printable build volume.
A four-print-head system brings many advantages: faster color changes, less purge waste, and higher efficiency. However, it also introduces some unavoidable trade-offs. Four print heads inevitably require more space inside the machine. This leaves us with two options: either keep the machine compact by reducing the printable area, or increase the machine's overall size to preserve a large build volume. We chose the latter.
First, let's look at the size of the build plate and the overall machine dimensions:
The size of the PEI build plate is 395mm×395mm.
The size of the machine footprint is 610mm×620mm.
Now let's look at the effective printable area in two typical printing scenarios.
Scenario 1: Single-color printing
Along the Y-axis, the two print heads share the same crossbeam, so they occupy only half the width of a single print head in the travel direction. As a result, about 25mm of travel is unavailable, leaving an effective printable distance of 370mm.
Along the X-axis, the other pair of print heads runs on a parallel crossbeam. During printing, the motion planner automatically performs collision avoidance by moving idle print heads out of the way. This reduces the effective printable distance to 354mm.
As a result, when printing a single-color model, any one of the four print heads can achieve an effective printable area of 354mm×370mm.
Single-color printing area:
Four-color printing：
For four-color printing, all four print heads must be able to reach the same area of the build plate.
Along the Y-axis, the printable region must be accessible to both print heads on the same crossbeam, reducing the available travel. The measured nozzle travel is 350mm.
Along the X-axis, the situation is the same as in the single-color scenario, with a measured effective travel of 354mm.
Therefore, when printing a four-color model, the effective printable area is 354mm×350mm.
color printing size：
We also calculated the ratio between the effective printable area and the machine's overall dimensions. Our machine achieves approximately 34%, compared with around 43% for leading single-print-head printers. There is certainly a gap, but this is an inherent trade-off of a multi-print-head architecture. We deliberately chose not to reduce the build volume just to make the machine smaller. While doing so, it would have lowered manufacturing costs, especially shipping costs. We believe that a printable area exceeding 350mm is an essential feature of a true high-end printer.
We're also exploring new ways to further improve building area utilization. One promising direction is allowing all four print heads to cooperate on printing different sections of the same model. This is still in the experimental stage, but if we make meaningful progress, we'll be excited to share it with the community.