Consumer filament dryers use resistive heating and fans to circulate hot air, drying up to two spools at once. They include humidity and temperature sensors, while some offer programmable cycles based on filament type. Higher-end dryers add features like touchscreens and better build quality. However, most of the products lack IoT capabilities and real-time filament health tracking. Hybrid solutions combine storage and drying but still fall short in offering personalized drying per spool or open-source IoT integration. Research shows that no current product meets all ideal design criteria, such as accurate temperature control, weight tracking, and predictive maintenance features.
GW Researches have proposed a novel method for filament drying and storage. It is a four-bay filament dryer and storage device that will monitor the health of filament and make environmental adjustments to adequately maintain healthy filament for 3D printing. The bays are air tight, and each equipped with humidity, temperature, RFID, and weight measurement sensors. A unique aspect of the design is the addition of an ultrasonic sensor to measure material properties of the filament, such as elastic modulus, defect percentage, and potentially bond quality. Future advancements include a camera with filters to analyze various stresses accumulating in the filament and incorporate machine learning to analyze filament performance before and after printing.
Figure 1: Prototype (version 1.0), shown from the front.
Figure 2: A CAD rendering of a potential prototype design, shown from the back
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