Anycubic is a company with about 300 employees that is based in Shenzhen, China. Since its founding in 2015, it has become one of the most popular brands of 3D printers on the market. The company offers a wide range of resin 3D printers, and has recently expanded its portfolio with the Anycubic Photon Mono X 6K.
This printer has the highest resolution LCD panel in the company’s portfolio so far, and also features other improvements compared to its predecessor – the Anycubic Mono X (with a resolution of 4K).
When compared side by side, visually both printers look the same. They have the same design, dimensions (270 x 290 x 475 mm), weight (11 kg) and also the same environment on the 3.5” touchscreen.
The Photon Workshop slicer software for Windows and OS X is provided as a free accessory to the product. Compared to its predecessor, the printer does not yet have support in our favorite Chitubox slicer, but we believe that will change in the near future. Printing tasks can be delivered via USB or Wi-Fi.
The most fundamental difference lies in the resolution of the LCD and the pixel size. The Mono X 6K sports a monochromatic 9.25” LCD panel with a resolution of 6K (5760 x 3600). This amounts to over 20 million pixels, with an XY pixel size of 34.4 μm. The Mono X’s monochromatic 3840 x 2400 LCD panel achieves an XY pixel size of 50 μm. So each pixel in the Mono X 6K is 31.2 % smaller than in its predecessor, allowing the display of significantly finer details on the XY plane.
The printing area for the 6K is 197 x 122.8 x 245 mm, which amounts to an increase of 2.3 % compared to the 4K version with its 192 x 120 x 245 mm. It’s not a large increase, but 5mm in the X axis and 3mm in the Y axis can sometimes save time and effort when placing models on the platform.
Another difference of the Mono X 6K is the surface finish of the platform – laser etching, which will further improve the already reliable grip of the model.
The Mono X 6K’s LCD screen also has a large contrast (350:1), which provides the printed models with extreme accuracy and sharper edges when compared to its competitors (200:1).
In order to better protect the LCD screen, Anycubic Photon Mono X 6K added a replaceable anti-scratch sheet which makes this key component more resistant and extends its service life.
With its impressive printing speed of up to 800mm per hour, the Photon Mono X 6K can print a 12 cm tall model in 1.5 hours – several hours less than its usual rivals.
The Mono X 6k also has multiple times better throughput of its LCD compared to its rivals. The exposition is thus more intense even when the LED runs at a lower output.
40 high-luminosity LEDs form a matrix to create an efficient parallel light source, allowing the Anycubic Photon Mono X 6K to provide a light balance of up to 90% while maintaining an intensity of up to 6.5mW/cm2. Higher light intensities allow for faster hardening of each layer, which in turn speeds up printing even for more demanding materials.
The Mono X 6K also supports light regulation by allowing users to adjust the LED output in the range of 30-100%, which in turn expands the possibilities for supported materials. Printing at lower outputs also allows users to significantly extend the service life of the LCD and LEDs.
The printer also comes with a complete set of tools, which means customers can immediately start printing.