Wash

The UW-01 is Creality’s version of a combined washing and curing machine. To wash your freshly finished, gunky, resin-covered prints, you place your finished model in the designated container filled with a cleaning agent (IPA or water) and start the washing process.

If you own one of Creality’s resin 3D printers, the LD-002R or LD-002H, you have the additional advantage of being able to place the build plate of these printers directly on the UW-01’s mount. The holder’s height is adjustable so that the container does not have to be filled to the brim and allows you to position your prints fully submerged in the cleaning solution.

If you plan to use this with a third-party printer, no problem – place your models in the provided basket,  which prevents your prints from meeting a grizzly end on contact with the high-speed propeller at the bottom of the container. The turbine does have a safety guard on top of it, but you wouldn’t want to take any chances.

In Wash mode, the UW-01 houses a volume of 170 x 120 x 160 mm, which should be more than enough for any print plate’s worth of parts from today’s crop of mid-size desktop resin printers  – think Creality’s LD-series printers or the Elegoo Mars series of printers.

After the cleaning process, you can close the airtight container and keep it stowed for the next wash. This should prevent the stench of IPA from propagating in your cleaning area when the cleaning cycle is not in use. Regardless, we still recommend using it in a well-ventilated area.

Cure

Curing is done by an array of 385 nm and 405nm wavelength UV LEDs and a rotating table.

Arranged in a tall stripe, the LEDs are located on the machine’s spine, at the back. The rotating table and its reflecting surface mean the model you intend to cure gets hit by UV light from all sides. The maximum curing volume is Ø 165 x 200 mm.

Ease of use

The machine’s operation appears to simple. With the touch buttons on the machine’s front, you can switch between the two operation modes. The user interface lets you choose between three different washing speeds, depending on your model’s delicacy, and set a timer all the way up to 90 minutes. A simple display to the left of the controls gives the time remaining and an indicator of the currently selected mode.

The lid is also equipped with a safety function that automatically switches off the UV lights when you remove the cover, a useful precaution against accidental exposure to the UV light.