Ilios 3D Now Shipping New Ilios Beam 3D Printer

[Brian_Krassenstein]

In April, Ilios 3D introduced their new Ilios Beam 3D printer, and at first they were being pretty secretive about it, not even releasing photos until it was set to begin shipping. Regardless, it's already become quite popular. According to Demetris Ruslan Zavorotnitsienko, CEO and Lead Developer of Ilios 3D, the Beam is now shipping and the company is already scrambling to keep up with orders. Read more at 3DPrint.com: https://3dprint.com/144077/ilios-bea...nter-shipping/

[Llewellyn Evans]

Ilios Beam Review
I am sad to say that the Ilios beam is slower than a snail on its way to a french restaurant.

Mechanically it is pretty well made. I only had one small mechanical issue that was easily fixed. The Z-axis interfered with a bolt on the top of the machine .... a design issue. I was instructed to drill out the part of the tower that interfered. The sheetmetal is nicely finished. The design around the build plate is not particularly well thought out. Although there are some nice CNC cut aluminium parts in the assembly, it is difficult to level accurately and no way to test that it is properly level.

The main problem with the mechanical design is that you can't see the print from any angle.
Also the firmware does not allow you to pause the print and then raise the Z-axis to see how the print is going. There is no working button in the firmware to do this. This means you never get to see if the print has delaminated from the print bed ...... which it almost always does. The result is failed prints and a big waste of time and money.
IMG_20161011_221110586_HDR.jpg

The Ilios Beam Firmware shows some great features, but needs some bug fixes and compatibility improvements.
There is a camera built into the machine that you can connect to via a browser, but all it shows is a moving white dot on a black background. This is showing that the laser is working ..... Which you already know because you can see the glow through the little holes in the top of the build plate.
It is not useful as it does not help you see the print.
It is not important but the serial number information is not recorded in the firmware ...... it says AAAA-BBB-CC-D

There is a bug in the firmware that gives you an estimated build time that is wrong.
It actually takes around 25x longer than the firmware says.
The problem is that it is so slow that you could never actually use the build envelope. (Not unless you were cryogenically frozen next to Walt Disney for the next hundred years)
The firmware says that my standard test object (a hollow 2cm cube with 1mm walls) will take 2 hours to print.
It actually takes MORE THAN 2 DAYS to print.
The elapsed time on the print screen does not increase when you start printing.
In fact it is so slow that I thought for the first few days that it was not working!!!

I complained to Ilios about the speed, Ilios offered to refund my money if I sent the printer back to them at my expense.
I sent the printer back, they received and accepted it and they promised to refund the money ....... they have not honoured their promise. It has been months.

I can honestly say that this is a worse investment than the Peachy!