Anycubic Shows Strange Concept Printer at TCT Asia – Is It an Exciting Future for Desktop Resin Printing?

You’d be forgiven for not knowing much about the Anycubic Photon Nex. Its first mention came during an Anycubic anniversary live stream and has since appeared in various spots, including the A’Design Awards, a handful of sponsored content placements early in 2022, and, most recently, an appearance at the TCT Asia additive manufacturing show.

We’ve not written about this concept printer before. Since it has made a public appearance and Anycubic is showing off its distinctive, eggy visage again on social media, we figured there’s no time like the present to take a look. Indulge this mid-week distraction; something to exhale sharply through the nose at.

The Photon Nex is inspired by science fiction (Star Trek, according to its creators); we can see the direction it’s pointing in, although our interpretation is a little more Aliens and eggs than Earl Grey and “hot”. To the printer’s credit, the front of the device automatically slides up when opening and does give the impression of a deep sleep pod.

Looks aside, the Photon Nex teases four exciting innovations that could take desktop resin 3D printing a step beyond the plateau the machines have sat on for the last couple of years.

Speeeeeed

1600 mm/h is the number Anycubic puts out for the Photon Nex, with the example given of being able to print a 200 mm tall Eiffel Tower model in seven and a half minutes. An absurdly fast resin print speed, and one with zero detail or explanation to back it up.

Multicolor Printing?

Early mentions of the Photon Nex included a color printing module and prints achieving lifelike or “real world” coloring. This particular message is absent from the recent snapshots of information about the Nex we’ve seen.

Automatic leveling

This is the one thing we’d prioritize over all others. An automatic plate leveling system would eliminate the need to fiddle with machine screws to level the print plate – no more greasy hands from handling resin-residue-smeared parts of the printer.

Zonal Illumination

Highlighted for its energy-saving benefits, Anycubic points out some form of zonal illumination system, lighting only the pixels that are “on”. As with any concept, there’s no hard information or specification to show what or how exactly this is happening, but such a feature would be a-okay with us.

Other features of this mythical, unlikely, but hey-we-can-dream 3D printer include app control, a 10.1-inch 8K mono LCD, an automatic resin feed system, and power-out recovery.

Anycubic has no immediate plans to bring the Photon Nex to market – it is a concept, after all. But if even one of the four main features made its way to future Anycubic machines, it’d be a small, welcome step forward for desktop LCD-style resin 3D printers that have largely remained the same for the last four or so years.

What do you think? What developments in desktop resin printing tech would you like to see? Start the conversation and drop a comment below.