Feb.17, 2014
Dglass 3D (D3D), a start-up company from Willmar, Minnesota launched their new printer extruder heads on Kickstarter last year for funding but fell short of their goal. But that was not the end of the project. D3D continued working on the project and today they come back on Kickstarter with a completed, tested professional level extruder upgrades for your desktop 3D printers.
After its 2013 Kickstarter campaign D3D was contacted by many makers and companies expressing interest in a finished product, because the poor design and cheap parts of some of the current 3D printers often cause filament grip issues, overheating stepper motors, loss of print quality or speed, malfunctioning hot ends etc.
D3D, founded by brothers Carl Douglass and Brian Douglass, wanted to change it and they come up with their latest design: RUGGED-HPX series, the next generation of D3D's previous models.
Usually each extruder requires a separate motor, which takes up more space, greatly reducing the print area. D3D's dual extruder is powered by one stepper motor and takes up the same space as a single extruder head. This patent pending "D3D Filament Shifter" technology is a uniquely simple yet effective design. Each filament is fed into the hot end through two idler gear. And they are controlled solely by reversing the drive motor, which automatically selects the other filament extruder.
In the new design, each extruder is built with precision-machined metal parts that have been hand finished and assembled. They have been re-engineered to use a 2:1 gear reduction drivetrain accomplished with an all-metal gear and bearing transmission. According to the team, the new gear reduction design provides greater torque and significant improvement in steps per filament extruded.
Samples of D3D Prints
The RUGGED-HPX extruders have been tested on several different printers. The result is an expanded product line: the rugged HPX1 (single extruder), HPX2 (dual extruder) and HPX2 Max (dual extruder driven by a single motor). Kickstarter backers will receive Rugged-HPX1 for $105, HPX2 for $205 and HPX2 Max for $220. The project has a Kickstarter goal of USD$15,000 by March 22 to proceed. See more rewards and product details here on Kickstarter.
Posted in 3D Printer Accessories
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Sergey, their "remote mount" extruders are bowden style. So bowden is an option here. Bowden isn't a panacea though, it's another drive option to consider.
Sergey wrote at 2/18/2014 8:29:59 AM:
They forgot to compare their solution with Bowden extruder. It might be so that Bowden will win in all the use-cases
jd90 wrote at 2/18/2014 6:01:08 AM:
The picture of the different models is incorrect, you might want to replace it with the newer photo. Remote mount and direct mount were swapped on the two rows.
Opensourcer wrote at 2/17/2014 9:53:55 PM:
Why don't they release it as OpenSource?
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