Nov.28, 2014
Single head FFF/FDM 3D printer can only print in one material or one color. But how to make multi-colored 3D prints using a single head extruder? Pause a print mid job and switch the current filament for another colour filament? One common method is to join filament pieces together to produce one multi-colored string. Swiss startup Artesea, founded by Marina Zyx and Kirill Ponazdyr, has come up a small tool for splicing 3D filament to bring colors to the open source 3D printing scene.
Joining filament by hand without assistance of specialized tool was quite cumbersome process. It often produces deformed and fragile joins which can get stuck in extruder / bowden tube or break in stressful situations such as retraction or passage through extruder drive mechanism.
Artesea's 3D Filament Splicer is designed to speed up and ease the process of joining filament. The process includes following steps:
- Cut pieces of differently colored filament
- Heat up filament piece ends
- Join the pieces together
- Feed new multi-colored filament into your printer
1. example of filament joined by hand; 2. Filament joined by Artsea's 3D Filament Splicer, no post processing required.
Artesea's 3D Filament Splicer has an ergonomic footprint and designed for 1.75mm and 3mm filaments. Its features include:
- Quickly setup
- High temperature range up to 235c, suitable for PLA and ABS Filament
- Heater block made of pure copper with brass knife for cutting off excess filament
- Cooling block made of pure copper to quickly cool down and form joined filament
- Heat insulation PFTE parts are made of European PFTE with all appropriate certifications
- Copper parts are precisely CNC milled locally in Switzerland
- Works with 110v and 220v voltage
Copper parts
How to use
For small pieces of filament:
- Hold filament pieces in both hands
- Touch heating block with filament ends for 1 second
- Join pieces on heater block
- Rotate filament ~360 degrees to remove excess plastic
- Remove piece to cooling block groove and keep rotating
- One join takes less then 20 seconds to complete
For large pieces of filament:
- Hold filament pieces in both hands
- Touch heating block with filament ends for 1 second
- Join pieces on heater block and push them into cooling groove, so excess plastic forms bulge above joint, wait for 3-5 seconds
- Remove cooled filament and use hot knife on heater block to quickly cut off excess plastic
- One join takes about 15 seconds to complete
The 3D Filament splicer can be pre-ordered on Artesea's website, it is available as a DIY kit ($140) or fully assembled unit ($190).
Filament splicer blueprints are released under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License and can be downloaded from Thingiverse and Youmagine.
Posted in 3D Printer Accessories
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Hi I would like to buy one of your splcers. I am in Melbourne Australia can you send here? Can you send it? Cost? Thanks
Mads-Rugaard wrote at 11/28/2014 8:04:27 PM:
I believe that the technique behind Mosaic Manufactoring i better. This seams to be a tricky one to use for precise results.
Mads-Rugaard wrote at 11/28/2014 8:03:30 PM:
I believe that the technique behind Mosaic Manufactoring i better. This seams to be a tricky one to use for precise results.
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