Enclosure (add-on)

An optional add-on, bought with the machine or later. The panels are twin-wall polycarbonate - the honeycomb-section sheet, light and insulating - carried on a frame that closes the printer in on all sides.

What it is for

Holding the chamber temperature. That is the whole purpose, and three things follow from it:

• The chamber stays where it settles. An open G1 sheds heat to the room continuously; a closed one does not
• Less energy goes into the room. The bed is not fighting the draught
• Parts cool evenly. This is the one that shows in the print: a tall part in an open machine cools faster at the top and on the side facing the room, and that difference pulls the geometry. Sudden cooling puts stress into the part

It is strongly recommended for those reasons. On large parts in particular, the difference is not subtle.

It is not fume containment

The enclosure does not hold fumes in. It is not sealed, it has no extraction, and closing it changes nothing about what reaches the room.

This matters because Safety and fumes names “an enclosure exhausted outdoors” as the most effective control there is. That is a different thing: an enclosure with a duct to outside. This one has no duct. Whatever ventilation your material and your room require, you still need all of it with the enclosure fitted.

What it is made of

Three groups of parts, in the order the assembly manual fits them:

Dome	Goes on top of the printer and is fixed at the corners
Three side panels	Hooked into those same corners, then fixed along the sides
Two front doors	Hung on hinges on the frame, with handles

The screws, hammer nuts, hinges and handles come as a separate group in the parts list - the manual calls it Optional Enclosure Parts, and a machine ordered without the enclosure does not carry them.

It changes the order of the build

The enclosure is fitted before the belt tensioners, not after. The assembly manual says so twice, from both ends: step 1.6 tells anyone with the add-on to skip the tensioners for now, and the enclosure section sends you back to 1.6 once the panels are on.

The reason is the side panels: they hook into the corners, and the corners have to be reachable when they do. See Belts and pulleys.

Ask support about

• Whether any print setting should change with the enclosure fitted
• What chamber temperature it reaches with the material you run
• Ordering one for a machine that did not ship with it

Related notes

• Safety and fumes - what the enclosure does not do for you
• Belts and pulleys - the tensioners it reorders
• Frame - the corners it mounts to
• Warping - the failure uneven cooling produces