Carbon M1 — Technical data

The M1 was Carbon's first production printer and came onto the market in April 2016. It uses the CLIP process, which Carbon markets as Digital Light Synthesis: a DLP projector exposes the resin from below through an oxygen-permeable window, above which a thin layer stays liquid, so the part is drawn upwards continuously. According to Carbon's documentation the build volume is 141 × 79 × 326 mm at a pixel size of 75 µm, and the resin cassette holds around 800 ml. The M2 followed in March 2017 with twice the build area in the same housing.

For a used buyer the M1 is above all a contractual question. At launch Carbon did not sell it outright but only offered it on subscription, with software, updates and service delivered via the cloud. Any unit on offer should therefore be demonstrably free to transfer, and Carbon has to confirm that it will register and support it again. Technically, the condition of the delicate window in the cassette, the manually latched platform and the exhaust connection matter. Without a washer and an oven for the dual-cure resins the process chain is incomplete.