Full Review Elegoo Saturn 3d Printer – It cannot be understated that the Elegoo Saturn is among the most eagerly anticipated consumer MSLA 3D printers.
That is the final sign of the tiny predecessor it left behind, the Elegoo Mars. By generating great prints without the premium price tag, Mars is clearly carrying on the job Anycubic Photon began in bridging the gap between customers with restricted budgets and the printing capabilities of high-end SLA 3D printers.
With a new monochrome appearance and larger build volume, the sparkling new Elegoo Saturn, which is essentially a thing of the past, offers all that and even more. The monochromatic display comes as a bit of a surprise considering how enthusiastically beta testers worldwide have rated units with 2K panels. Product.
Read More: The Best 3D Printers for Beginners 2022
The Elegoo changed from a “normal” 2K LCD to a 3840 x 2400 pixel monochrome display as a result of input from these customers, possibly detecting a shift in what should now be deemed the norm. This change increased resolution and print speeds.
Table of Contents
Elegoo Saturn 3d Printer: Design, Features, and Specs
Design and Features Saturn 3d Printer
The Elegoo Saturn is similar to the Mars and Mars Pro in many ways, yet it also has a number of helpful modifications that account for the size and difficulty boost it delivers.
The base unit is as durable as it can be with a 280 x 240 mm footprint. There are two fans, a 3.5-inch color touchscreen, and a USB port on the front, rear, and right of the sturdy metal chassis.
Every Elegoo computer has a USB port that has been reset; it almost seems ritualistic. Mars has it on the back (poor), Mars Pro has it on the front (excellent), and now Elegoo has it on the right side of the 3D printer, somewhere in the center, similar to the Saturn Beta units (acceptable). We have no idea why the beta unit suddenly changed, but we’ll spend money arranging the inside due of the new screen.
Above, the barrel reverberates (glows? with us?) This addresses an issue with the Mars and Mars Pro in that it can be removed from the top rather than needing to be relocated awkwardly to the side, in addition to having a bigger capacity and using the 192 x 120 mm on the X and Y. Another useful addition is the addition of four protruding ridges at the corners of the barrel, which allows you to set them aside without fearing that dust or other particles would harm the FEP layer.
The Elegoo Saturn shares many characteristics with its predecessors, the Mars and Mars Pro, and adds a number of useful upgrades that take into account the increase in size and difficulty it brings.
The 280 x 240 mm footprint of the base unit makes it as robust as feasible. On the front, back, and right of the tough metal chassis are two fans, a 3.5-inch color touchscreen, and a USB port.
Every machine that Elegoo manufactures has a USB slot that has been reset, it feels like a ritual. As with the Saturn Beta units, Mars has it on the rear (bad), Mars Pro has it on the front (ideal), and now Elegoo has it on the right side of the 3D printer, somewhere in the middle (acceptable). We don’t know why the beta unit suddenly changed, but because of the new screen, we’ll spend money reorganizing the interior.
The barrel resonates (glows? with us?) above. In addition to having a larger capacity and utilizing the 192 x 120 mm on the X and Y, this fixes a problem with the Mars and Mars Pro in that it can be removed from the top rather than having to be shifted awkwardly to the side. Four projecting ridges at the corners under the barrel are another helpful improvement that lets you leave them aside without worrying that dust or other particles would scratch the FEP film.
A further area where Saturn excels is print speed. By allowing more light to flow through, monochrome screens reduce the amount of time needed for the coating to cure from up to 6 to 8 seconds to just 1-2 seconds. Saturn can now produce highly detailed prints while operating 60% faster than comparable printers. This offers a wide range of opportunities, particularly for batch manufacturing.
Overall, Elegoo appears to have made a sane decision to highlight Saturn based on the input and common logic.
Printing and Usage
The Elegoo Saturn is a sleek, well-defined machine right out of the packaging. Having worked closely with the Elegoo Saturn for several days, we can confidently state that the experience was in line with what was anticipated based on the printer specifications, the company’s past equipment, and our personal experience with MSLA printers.
The Elegoo Saturn makes printing as simple as it was with the earlier Mars and Mars Pro. At least in our situation, leveling the platform and manually switching the screen resolution in the Chitubox profile to the recently increased 3840 x 2400 pixels were part of the pre-flight preparation. Even the accompanying test prints and instructions used the previous resolution, indicating that the upgrade to the LCD specifications came very late.
But everything went off without a hitch. Chiu’s powerful ChiTu Box slicing software makes creating 3D models simple by providing the essential tools (such as indentation and the development of supporting structures) up front with the appropriate parameters that may be adjusted to your preferences. One thing we advise is setting the supporting structure to “strong” since otherwise parts of the molds may be destroyed by the force of the peeling during layer changes.
The Elegoo Saturn is compatible with a wide variety of 405nm UV-sensitive resins, which is typical for contemporary MSLA resin printers. Two samples of Elegoo resin given by Elegoo were used to run the prints (remember that stock printers do not come with any resin). With the company’s own resins and the majority of the remaining resin we had from prior reviews, the Saturn printed flawlessly the first time without any fuss. Even resin mixes without special descriptions, like ABS Elegoo, and common resins can cure swiftly and without any issues.
Saturn’s 192 x 120 x 200 mm print capacity offers about three times the print area and approximately three and a half times the volume of Mars, providing the potential for substantially larger prints. Things get pretty exciting with faster print rates. Beyond the usual tedious post-processing for MSLA printing, there were no flaws that stood out throughout our week-long evaluation.
Verdict
The first batch of Elegoo Saturn pre-ordered devices was quickly scooped up. This is the demand.
And it’s clear why. We’ve seen firsthand what it looks like to take the fantastic Mars and better it in every way from our experience with the Elegoo Saturn over the past few days. Large print, excellent resolution, and ultra-fastness are made possible by the monochromatic display in combination with the enlarged construction volume.
The Elegoo Saturn has a distinct position in the market… during the pre-order phase—thanks to the $400 presale fee. Although speculations suggest that the Saturn will settle at (which is still acceptable) $500–$600, we do not yet know what its market price will be.
Elegoo has informed us that the Saturn won’t be generally available until November, which is a very long time to wait for one of the hottest printers on the market right now. The justification offered is to allow enough time for quality control, which comes after hardware changes made in response to beta input.
When the Elegoo Mars was introduced, we advised that if you’re unsure whether to get a resin printer, buy two. Saturn is the same thus far. Is Saturn still significant in November, the question is?
Feature
The Elegoo Saturn shares several design characteristics with a larger Mars and has a similar appearance. There are some significant modifications, however.
The LCD panel, as may be expected, is the most noticeable difference from Mars. The 8.9-inch (23 cm) monochrome LCD screen on the Elegoo Saturn has a 4K resolution. It has an overall XY resolution of 0.050 mm with a build area of 192 x 120 mm (50 microns).
The sentence above could make sense to a layperson. Good guidelines on how to enhance our accustomed Mars printing experience. One simple word—monochrome—captures how much wonderful Saturn is.
LCDs used in monochrome printers vary somewhat from LCDs often used in low-cost resin printers. By allowing more light to pass through the mask while the mono LCD is on, the coating cure time is significantly reduced. The Elego0 Saturn will print rapidly in addition to having a bigger print. Compared to the reported 8 seconds for the original Mars printer, a sub-layer duration of two seconds would be the blast average (and even the beta version of the Saturn).
Additionally, it is claimed that the monochrome panel would endure longer than conventional LCD displays. The lifespan of an LCD panel is typically 500 hours. We can only speculate about the estimated life as Elegoo makes no comments. Of course, every additional hour is appreciated.
Print Resolution Elegoo Saturn 3d Printer
The Saturn should be able to fit the same degree of information as its smaller sister into a lot more space since it has a 4K display rather than the 2K panels generally seen on such machines (and in fact, it was initially scheduled to show). bigger print The pixels on an 8.9-inch mono LCD with a resolution of 3840 x 2400 have a size of 0.05 mm (50 microns).
The Saturn creates prints of equivalent, if not identical, quality to those produced by the 2K Elegoo Mars panel, which shares a pixel size of 0.047 mm (47 microns) with other MSLA 3D printers comparable to a 2K display as a light source.
The stability enhancements are also a very welcome feature as the build platform size grows. The Saturn features two linear rails on its vertical axis, following the trend of smaller LCD equivalents, ensuring that the production platform stays level during the whole printing process.
Saturn’s user interface is an easy-to-use 3.5-inch color touchscreen. The user interface is incredibly straightforward and simple to use thanks to the ChiTu board and firmware.
Features
The Elegoo Saturn also comes with additional features like:
An Ethernet port with a side-facing USB connector for convenient access is excellent for print farms and remote printing.
Better adherence and fewer printing mistakes are promised by the new sandblasted print surface.
Elegoo Saturn Specifications
- Technology: MSLA
- Year: 2020
- Assembly: Fully-assembled
- Manufacturer: Elegoo
- 3D PRINTING SPECIFICATIONS
- Build volume: 192 x 120 x 200 mm (7.55 x 4.72 x 7.87 in)
- Layer height: 10 microns
- Resolution: 3840 x 2400 pixels
- XY-axis resolution: 0.05 mm
- Z-axis positioning accuracy: 0.00125 mm
- Printing speed: 30 mm/h
- Bed leveling: Semi-automatic
- Display: 3.5-inch touchscreen
- Third-party materials: Yes
- Materials: 405 nm UV resin
Software Requirements:
- Recommended slicer: ChiTuBox
- Operating system: Windows / Mac OS X
- File types: STL, SLC, OBJ
- Connectivity: USB, Ethernet
Dimensions and Weight:
- Frame dimensions: 280 x 240 x 446 mm (11.02 x 9.44 x 17.55 in)
- Weight: 12.5 kg (27.56 lbs)
