QIDI Tech i-Fast In-Depth Review: High-Temp Dual-Extruder FDM 3D Printer

QIDI Tech i-Fast In-Depth Review: High-Temp Dual-Extruder FDM 3D Printer

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QIDI Technology is a relatively young Chinese company with extensive experience in the development and production of 3D printers, supplying its equipment to Asia, Europe, North and South America.

QIDI Tech focuses on creating relatively affordable 3D printers, covering not only FDM devices, but resin printers as well.

First off, let’s look at the supply package of the i-Fast and move on to its structural components and features.

The printer comes with a set of spare parts, tools, and consumables: a spool of red PLA filament, a toolbox, clamps, spare screws and fuses, replaceable nozzles.

Also included are metal rollers with fasteners for holding the spools, scraper, two hexagon screwdrivers, power and LAN cables, and a slotted screwdriver.

Another important part is the BuildTak-type coated metal bed plate and a swappable extruder - one of the key features on many QIDI Tech 3D printers, that will be tested later.

A 16-gigabyte USB flash drive is a nice final touch to the whole set.

Speaking about the design of the i-Fast, the enclosure is made of plastic with QR codes on the side wall for convenient access to detailed instructions.

Three retractable rods for holding the spools are located at the back, also housing the power supply socket, the on-off toggle switch, and a LAN interface at the bottom rear area.

The machine is closed off from the top with a plastic cover on four magnets. The left panel contains critical safety notices.

The case also has handles for easy relocation.

Let's remove the top cover and take a look at the kinematics and the extruder setup. The i-Fast has a generic kinematics arrangement, with one NEMA 17 stepper motor per axis based on rail guides and reinforced with a machined metal crossmember on the X-axis. There are currently two extruders installed — the first extruder on this machine is on the right, with the second one, respectively, on the left.

Opening the front door, we see a platform with a bed plate cover laid flush and evenly, being fixed with thirty magnets on the platform itself. At the same time, it is easy to remove and place back.

An air duct is located on the back wall. The printer has a heated chamber for stable printing with ABS or polycarbonate.

The extruders change height mechanically. This solution eliminates the need to use a servo drive and decreases the overall print head weight. A similar solution is found in 3D printers by the Dutch company Ultimaker.

All QIDI devices are equipped with a unified touchscreen with multilingual intuitive interface offering manual control, preheating and filament settings, calibration, and so on. Another noteworthy mention is Wi-Fi connectivity.

The top row of icons is responsible for sound and internal backlight, as well as the webcam installed inside the build chamber, which allows you to monitor the printing process.

The first step in running the device will be the Homing procedure, for the printer’s axes to reach the limit switches. At the same time, we’ll listen to what kind of noise is audible.

Judging by the glowing LED in the corner of the printer, the i-Fast is equipped with optical limit switches.