Dry-on-the-fly?
Just wondering: filament on a spool is tightly packed, so it takes a long time to dry. On top of that in some spools the only effective exposure to dry air is at the outside. A single filament, exposed on all sides to dry air would dry much faster. Why not simply feed the filament through a drying chamber (tube) while it is on its way to the hotend?
RE: Dry-on-the-fly?
I would assume that the filament moves too fast for sufficient drying along the way - but if that could be solved, this would probably a very good thing to have.
RE: Dry-on-the-fly?
I think the problem with this idea is that the filament needs minutes at least in a drying condition to make any difference and with the XL moving it so fast, at least several meters of filament would be required to be in drying conditions for it to make any difference.
No matter how it's done, a lot of drag will be added to the filament path. It's bad enough as it is. Adding more will only increase failures.
RE: Dry-on-the-fly?
Various implementations of this idea exist. Search for "inline filament dryer". Examples range from the cheap and cheerful https://thordsen3d.com/ IFD-175 EX, currently USD 160, up to the industrial-grade https://drywise.co/ at USD 1900. You can find reviews and tests (with varying levels of scientific accuracy) on youtube.