Following the breakout success of its large-format Phenom masked stereolithography (MSLA) 3D printers, Peopoly has taken a long hard look in the mirror, and decided “nah, it’s not big enough.”
Okay, perhaps the inner monologue that led to the Phenom XXL didn’t quite go like that, but the result is the same. The Peopoly Phenom XXL is big. Really big. At over half a meter in the X- and Z- axes, and close to 300 mm in the Y-, the Phenom XXL might well be the largest desktop class resin 3D printer around.
Designed to meet the desires of its users clamoring for more build volume, Peopoly’s Phenom XXL is an absurdly large machine, for largely absurd times.
Here’s all we know so far about this gargantuan 3D printer.
To help put the Phenom XXL into perspective, we praised the Phenom for being an uncommonly large-volume 3D printer. The Phenom XXL has 500% more printable volume to play with. Not only will you be able to print larger batches of parts, but those parts can be bigger, too.
Underpinning the Phenom XXL’s printing capabilities is, Peopoly claims, an industrial 4K LCD panel, and 340 W UV light source. This LCD panel has a resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels, which (divided into the build area) calculates out to a pixel size of 137 microns, at a pixel density of 185 pixels per inch (PPI).
To those used to the ultra-fine resolutions found on small desktop resin printers, this may sound absurdly rough. But it illustrates the challenges of scaling MSLA 3D printing as a technology, and why it would be silly to attempt to compare the XXL to said smaller printers.
Any increase in build area means using a larger LCD panel, naturally. If the LCD’s resolution (the number of pixels in a given aspect ratio) remains the same, this inversely results in “lower” resolution prints. It follows that the same number of pixels in a larger area means larger pixels. On an MSLA printer, this equates to larger cured voxels (volumetric pixels).
So, if the Phenom XXL were to output prints at the detail achievable on a 2K LCD found in a budget MSLA printer (which has a high pixel density), then it would need an insanely high-resolution LCD that crams even more pixels into the larger area, simply to match the smaller printer.
Putting numbers on this drawn-out point we’re making: if you were to achieve the same level of print quality between the Elegoo Mars, and its 120 x 68 mm 2K LCD and a hypothetical Phenom XXL that still has a 527 x 296 mm LCD, the XXL would require an LCD panel with almost 20 times more pixels in it, a value that matches the increase in area. We’re not even sure if such panels exist, and if they did, they’d probably be impractically expensive for this purpose.
With this in mind, the XXL is clearly suited to printing larger objects – things that you might previously have had to print in parts could theoretically be printed whole now. Given the ease with which resin prints can be post-processed, we’d expect the XXL to be a boon for entertainment professionals and engineers on a budget. Minute detail will be infeasible, but even at 137 microns, the finish of prints should still be pretty fine.
We haven’t heard much about the LCD used in the XXL – there’s been no indication on the expected lifetime of the panel before you’d have to replace it. That Peopoly uses the term “industrial” gives us hope that it’ll be rated for a decent number of hours. It will inevitably have to be replaced at some point in the printer’s life cycle, though.
The build volume on the Peopoly Phenom XXL is 527 x 296 x 550 mm. The original Peopoly Phenom has a volume of 276 x 155 x 400 mm, and sitting between them is the Phenom L, with a build volume of 346 x 194 x 400 mm.
This new large volume is a leap in all directions. It is the result of demand from customers in the medical, automotive, and entertainment industries, who found even the Phenom L’s spacious print chamber to be a bit shrimpy for their needs.
As with the previous Phenom machines, the Phenom XXL will use ChiTu firmware, with model preparation handled in ChiTuBox software. In our experience, ChiTuBox is simple to use and relatively capable for desktop printing.
How well it stacks up in a machine as large as the Phenom XXL, we haven’t a clue. ChiTuBox can handle support placement and other basic automation well enough, but there aren’t really any tools in it tailored to handle large batches of models. We’ve seen large jobs with many parts, each with custom supports, bog things down in ChiTuBox, and that was a job for a small print plate. It could be that the full potential of the Phenom XXL’s build volume is throttled by software that isn’t designed for it.
All conjecture, of course. We haven’t gone hands-on, so we couldn’t say with certainty. But from experience with similar machines, that’s an area we reckon could cause some frustration.
The Phenom XXL uses a new style build plate, which we can see in the teaser video is perforated. Such plates allow the initial over cured layers of resin to expand into the holes, effectively creating anchor points that help secure the print to the plate throughout the job.
Other changes to accommodate the Phenom XXL’s large build volume include a new resin vat that, in addition to holding some 6+ kilograms of resin, features handles, and new sliding and locking mechanisms.
Beefed up cooling should help to keep the 340 watt light source in check. There are no particular resin requirements for the Phenom XXL, which will be great news to owners of the companies machines making the upgrade – Peopoly’s Deft and Neo “fast” resins for its large-format MSLA printers will work just as well in the XXL.
We have it from Peopoly that the Phenom XXL is still undergoing finalization, but is expected to be available sometime in October.
We know a lot about the Peopoly Phenom XXL, but one crucial piece of missing information is the price, which has yet to be determined by Peopoly.
It’s reasonable to expect that the cost of this massive monolith of a printer will be in the thousands. For a little context, the Phenom L before it hovers around the $3,000 mark, while the original Phenom sells for approximately $2,000.
Given the sheer size and weight of the Phenom XXL (130 kg shipped – almost double that of the Phenom L), we’d expect hefty shipping costs to be a possible hurdle with the XXL. Peopoly has local resellers in many countries, so some locality to the purchase will likely be possible.
Peopoly is pretty good at circulating its machines among notable YouTubers, makers supreme, and other (better) mediums such as traditional web publications. But, given the Phenom XXL’s newness and our lack of a time machine, we have no reviews to highlight just yet. Although we don’t expect it will be long before the internet is abuzz with 3D printed Iron Man and Black Panther helmets, again.
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