The Raise3D Pro2 Plus is the 2019/2020 winter winner in the Best Large Format 3D Printer category. Here’s a review to help you understand why it’s a great choice for those who need to print big.
The Raise3D Pro2 Plus is one of the few professional large format 3D printers that costs less than $10,000. It has a large working volume of 305 × 305 × 605 mm, which will compete with the likes of the Zortrax M300 Plus, Modix Big 60, and in the consumer 3D printer category, the Creality CR-10 S5.
The Raise3D Pro2 Plus is designed for labs, entrepreneurs, manufacturing and prototyping. It’s not your typical hobbyist machine (unless you have a ton of money), the Raise 3D Pro2 Plus isn’t about picking at it – it’s about delivering results.
So what’s it like in everyday use? Let’s take a look.
Pros and cons
The print quality of the Raise3D Pro2 Plus ranges from very good to excellent, and overall the machine lives up to its professional reputation, although we didn’t find a huge difference in the printouts of the Pro2 Plus and the 3D printers, which cost half the $5999 claimed in this case.
This would not seem to be a good thing, but the opposite is true. Simply because there are a number of consumer 3D printers competing on the market that are similar in quality to the Raise3D Pro2 Plus, the bar has been raised significantly.
If you’re a straight-arm person, there’s nothing wrong with tweaking the parameters, testing the filaments, and optimizing the heating for a more perfect result. However, if you’ve invested $6000 in a professional unit like the Raise3D Pro2 Plus, you probably don’t really want to do that. You want the perfect result without giving the machine any thought at all to how it achieves it.
The build quality of the Raise3D is outstanding and the screen is a pleasure to work with – it’s an advance in usability.
And we really liked the Ideamaker. It’s more of a control center than just a slicer. You can control almost all Pro2 Plus settings directly from your Mac or PC – change print settings on the fly and queue up quickly.
You can’t mount large spools on the available holders. That sounds like a quibble, but you’ll see for yourself when you’re printing something big and 1kg of filament isn’t enough. The Raise3D engineers made two holes in the case for filament feed from the outside, but the filament will be pulled there at an angle, which is not good. But at least it’s an option.
Overall, the only negatives about the Raise3D Pro2 Plus are that it is hard to run 5kg reels, there is no end of job notification and although the print quality is great, bad things happen to bad things. To get all the quality out of the Raise3D Pro2 Plus, you’ll have to experiment with the settings.
Design and Adjustment
The Raise3D flagship comes in two sizes – the regular Pro2 and the Pro2 Plus with twice the Z-axis capacity of the Pro2. That’s the one we’ll take a look at. These machines come on pallets, and it is better to free up in the workshop or laboratory beforehand a place for a printer with dimensions of 305 × 305 × 605 mm. Weighs from 52 kg, it is not easy to lift it on the table. Lockable wheels are very handy.
The sample for our review also arrived safely because Raise3D takes transportation issues seriously. Every delicate part of the Pro2 Plus is securely locked in place, for which there are plenty of clips, screws, ties and top indicator packs.
Construction and Setup
The printer arrives all in clear acrylic. This greatly improves the quality of printing with materials such as ABS or HIPS. For safety, the Pro2 Plus has a new fan and HEPA filter. The filter is claimed to absorb 90% of all dust and larger particles.
In the box you will find all the tools you need (hex screwdrivers, spatula, gloves, nozzle cleaning kit, spares, etc.), 5 (!) power cables for different countries and two PLA coils of brand colors.
The Raise3D flagship comes in two sizes – the regular Pro2 and the Pro2 Plus with twice the Z-axis capacity of the Pro2. That’s the one we’ll take a look at. These machines come on pallets, and it is better to free up in the workshop or laboratory beforehand a place for a printer with dimensions of 305 × 305 × 605 mm. Weighs from 52 kg, it is not easy to lift it on the table. Lockable wheels are very handy.
The sample for our review also arrived safely because Raise3D takes transportation issues seriously. Every delicate part of the Pro2 Plus is securely locked in place, for which there are plenty of clips, screws, ties and top indicator packs.
The printer arrives all in clear acrylic. This greatly improves the quality of printing with materials such as ABS or HIPS. For safety, the Pro2 Plus has a new fan and HEPA filter. The filter is claimed to absorb 90% of all dust and larger particles.
In the box you will find all the tools you need (hex screwdrivers, spatula, gloves, nozzle cleaning kit, spares, etc.), 5 (!) power cables for different countries and two PLA coils of brand colors.
Raise 3d pro construction and setup
Setting up the Raise3D Pro2 Plus is simple and not frustrating, unless of course you unscrew the auto-alignment screw and lose it in the bowels of the printer like we did.
Most, if not all, professional FDM printers, including the Raise3D Pro2 Plus, have automatic alignment. The Raise3D has an optical end sensor for this.
To calibrate the Z axis offset correctly you need to adjust the distance between the photoelectric cell and the part that is overlapping it – the screw can be tightened or loosened, reducing or increasing the distance. You have to do it carefully, because you can make it difficult for yourself if, like in our case, the screw gets completely unscrewed and gets lost.
We did find a screw, but it is quite difficult to calibrate by hand, because you can only guess how hard this screw should be tightened. Our efforts were crowned with success after a few minutes of hard work.
Once everything is set up, the Raise3D Pro2 Plus is ready to go.
Everything about this machine screams professional quality: the aluminum body, the Z guides in industrial steel, the gorgeous 7″ RaiseTouch screen… Not only is the screen attractive, it’s also meaningful and understandable – nothing to guess at because of cryptic acronyms, cropped file names, or because of low resolution.
The new Pro2 Plus from Pro2 Plus has a gigantic 305 × 305 × 605 mm (12 × 12 × 23.8 inches) footprint, allowing it to print what other similarly priced 3D printers can’t. Thanks to the enclosed enclosure, the temperature inside the printer remains stable, so there’s no problem printing ABS, HIPS, and other heat-sensitive filaments. The enclosure also makes the Pro2 Plus safer for beginners.
Dual printhead
Raise3D recently refreshed its lineup by dropping the popular N2 printer and replacing it with the Pro2 line. The main difference between them is double extrusion, which is now standard. The flagship’s printhead is large and robust, and can be positioned so precisely that an impressive vertical resolution of 5 microns (0.005m) is achieved.
According to Raise3D, the Pro2 Plus can print PLA, PLA derivatives, ABS, HIPS, PC, TPU, TPE, Nylon, PET-G, ASA and PP. Flexible and abrasive materials such as reinforced fiber optics, reinforced graphite fiber, and even filament with metal particles can also be printed. The printing platform is heated to 110 ºC, the nozzle – to 300 ºC, that is, in the basic set of polymers such as Ultem and PEEK are not suitable for work.
Dual printing is one of the most important features of this machine. It’s not just the possibility of two-color printing (which is also good), but the use of soluble or brittle materials.
Two Raise3D Pro2 Plus nozzles are mounted in one printhead. Switching between them electronically takes less than 1 second. You can clearly see in the program that instead of wasting filament by accumulating it on the printhead, the slicer made a “skirt,” resulting in a separate sheath around the printout.
We had no problem with double extruding materials, even soluble ones.
Slicer
Raise3D has a special program for printer control and object slicing. The offered Ideamaker for Windows, Mac and Linux is clever and smart. While special slicers are usually no match for the ever young open source Cura or the professional Simplify3D, Ideamaker is not that case. It’s fast, flexible and offers everything you’d expect from a printer control center.
Ideamaker for Raise3D Pro2 Plus has a few special strengths:
- Convenience. First of all, it’s incredibly user-friendly. You don’t have to bury yourself in menus and submenus to find what you need. Everything is clear and (mostly) systematic. The path through the settings is logical, the advanced settings are exactly where you need them, though neatly hidden.
- The right set of tools. There are tools and information here that professionals need. Is the STL file going to leak water? – Just fix the grid in Ideamaker, you don’t need any special tools for that. Want to know how much it will cost to print and how much material you will need? – One click! Want to change temperature settings and do it from the comfort of your desk? – That’s easy! Whether it’s material handling, slicing templates, small reference structures or special G-Code settings, everything can be set up in Ideamaker, though much of the settings are hidden for convenience.
- Print Queues. While it’s common for users of amateur printers to fuss with SD cards or flash drives, this is unthinkable for a machine like the Raise3D Pro2 Plus. You slice an object in the slicer, send it via Wi-Fi to the printer’s 6GB memory, and start printing. If you want, you can run the print directly from Ideamaker. If you want, you can download a finished project from the printer itself. There are features that you’ll get used to very quickly. Small teams can queue up prints.
- Professional slicing. If you have multiple models on the platform, most slicers will separate them by calculating the shortest path. This can lead to uneven printing, threading, and generally poor results. And Ideamaker will print objects sequentially, one by one, layer by layer. In the end, it will produce better results and require less post-processing.
The only annoying thing is:
- No notifications. It would be nice to get a message that the print is ready. As they write on the Raise3D forum, this will be done in future versions.
- Basics. Each part is cut on a base by default. Because BuildTak’s grip on the substrate is strong, we had some difficulty separating the small parts without breaking them (or slicing the thumb).
Print quality
But in the end, the most important thing is print quality. We printed the obligatory Benchy and Autodesk/Kickstarter tests and a few full-featured models.
Test 1. Kickstarter/Autodesk
Testing FDM printers for accuracy. The Raise 3D Pro2 Plus achieved the following results:
- Dimensional accuracy: 5 out of 5 points (24.98 / 19.94 / 15.06 / 10.09 / 5.02)
- Fine flow control: 0 (1.50 mm spires were too short, but almost no threads were noticeable)
- Fine spacing printing: 3 points (3 of 5 cylinders come off)
- Canopies: 2 points (hinges began to hang off 30-degree canopies)
- Bridges: 2 points (3 bridges touching the surface below them)
- XY resonance: 2.5 points (ringing is indistinguishable)
- Z-axis alignment: 2.5 points (excellent layers)
Total Raise3D Pro2 Plus scored 17 points out of 30. If it weren’t for those short spires, the Pro2 would have been in the same category as the leading Prusa i3 Mk3
Test 2. Benchy
Visually, the Benchy turned out decently. Ideamaker cut the model with a slight edge overlap, but everything else was just fine.
The Benchy of the two materials also came out acceptably, with some streaks, minimal threads and some pixelation. Overall the result is somewhere between good and average.
Test 3. Complicated models
We printed several models with the Raise3D PLA filament that came with the printer. The adhesion to the BuildTak aluminum coating was excellent, for some delicate parts too much. The razor sharp paddle will be your favorite tool to use with the Raise3D Pro2 Plus. After separating the printout, put the magnetic plate back in place and the printer is ready for the next job.
We also printed an oupensor press in one pass (picture above). Unfortunately, the PLA compressed so we couldn’t match everything, but the print on this press turned out great.
We also printed the Eiffel Tower, with no struts, and everything turned out fine except for the railing.
Characteristics
Brand: Raise3D
Model: Pro2
Technology: FDM
Frame: Cartesian
Year: 2017
Category: professional, industrial
Printing volume: 305 × 305 × 605 mm (12 × 12 × 23.8 inches)
Max. table temperature: 110 ℃
Nozzle diameter: 0.2 to 0.8mm
Max nozzle temperature: 300 ℃
Max. Z resolution: 0.1mm
Max. print speed: 30-150mm/s
Materials: PLA, PLA derivatives, ABS, HIPS, PC, TPU, TPE, Nylon, PET-G, ASA, PP, Exotics
Filament cross section: 1.75 mm
Compatible with Third Party Materials: Yes
Interface: 7 inch TFT touchscreen, Wi-Fi control through Ideamaker app
Connections: Wi-Fi, USB, LAN
Printer dimensions: 620 × 590 × 760 mm
Printer weight: 52 kg
Power supply: 110/240 VAC
Features: dual extrusion system, filament sensor, continuation of operation after power failure, camera, HEPA filter, autolevelling, removable print substrate, 32-bit motherboard
