Additive manufacturing by means of a melted layer procedure (FFF, Fused Filament Fabrication) normally uses polymer-based filaments as its material. However, these are susceptible to moisture. A large proportion of the polymers tend to absorb moisture from the environment. The reduction in the quality of the filament that goes along with this can lead to poorer 3D printing results. To counteract this problem, the German 3D printing manufacturer Apium in collaboration with Purpose AM Systems from Singapore has developed the Apium filament dryer .

The device is intended to allow a consistently high extrusion quality and ensure not only high interlayer adhesion but also minimization of oozing and stringing in the workpiece. The dryer is compatible with filament sizes 1.75 mm, 2.85 mm and 3.00 mm, a coil diameter of 200 mm and a coil width of 80 mm. It supports not only Apium’s own printers, but also many open 3D printing systems, as long as they operate in a temperature range of 40 to 80 °C.

Filament dryers are nothing new in themselves: the 3D printer manufacturer Mass Portal last year unveiled a similar solution for keeping moisture away from polymers in the form of the FD1 .