Hollow filament as delivery for liquid… Need details.
They are really going to have to explain how the economics works on this. $1000 head, OK. Then part A and part B ‘filament’ which is actually a hollow tube. OK. Something cuts the tube in the extruder and parts A & B are mixed. OK. Then the split tube is sent back, somewhere…
The videos are long into the benefits, but really loose on exactly how this works. Especially the hollow filament. It sounds cool, but how expensive is the ‘filament’ and what happens to the ‘tube’ part? It won’t be totally clean, that’s a huge mess waiting to happen.
I almost put one in my cart, but luckily the $1k price gave me pause. They are going to have to explain the mechanism, handling, and pricing of materials a bit more before I bite.
At this point, I’d rather print a mold and add silicone. I know that has some downsides to this, but the economics on this look crazy at first glance.
I wish that they’d open up more and start with some simple things, like a syringe extruder. That this is in effect a double extruder is kind of interesting. You could feed two different materials for color range (think White+Black= range of grays). Or a standard filament and one with a ‘payload’ like GF, conductive, or other material.
It looks like the head retains the standard nozzle and hot end?
RE: Hollow filament as delivery for liquid… Need details.
Interesting, no comments about the silicone system from anyone?
RE: Hollow filament as delivery for liquid… Need details.
I'm actually curious as to what we are getting in the $1000 price? It looks like a complete tool head that can do traditional filament and the new silicone... and I'm assuming all the tubing needed to perform the functions. However, I also am curious about the collection system for the spent tubes... seems like it would be a mess.
I'm also curious if there will be an add-on upgrade for those that have the normal toolheads already.
If it can mix two liquids/gels then it can also extrude one - so with the simple addition of a UV curing lamp we have another huge range of possible materials. Pastes and gels include solder paste and electrically conductive 'inks', glues, fireable ceramics and even foodstuffs ...
Now if we could fill our own tubes the possibilities would be mind boggling.
Cheerio,
RE: Hollow filament as delivery for liquid… Need details.
The more I think about this, the more I'm confused as to why the liquid is delivered this way. Wouldn't it be easier to just feed it thru tubes vs trying to peel the tube and deal with tube waste?
RE: Hollow filament as delivery for liquid… Need details.
You would need tons of pressure to push e. g. silicone or less viscous pastes through a tube of that size.
So the tube-delivery-system is actually quite cool in my opinion. It also makes switching materials a breeze - just imagine cleaning your standard pressure or syringe setup upon a material change.
To be fair, I also would think that a syringe head would have been a nice add-on ever since the XL came out. I really wonder why no one has attempted that in the first place - in fact, I have never seen alternative XL heads e. g. on printables or elsewhere popping up. Back in the days with the MK2 or 3 users designed alternative heads within months after release.
Anyways. I also will wait until we see the costs of the materials. As it is patented, I think we can expect them to be fairly high and that this tech will stay low vis and use for a while.
RE: Hollow filament as delivery for liquid… Need details.
I'm still waiting on the release date... unless I've missed something? Has the Silicone tool head been released? Has the filament been released?
RE: Hollow filament as delivery for liquid… Need details.
At first i thought that i would probably try this and then i saw the indicative price. I understand that there is an R&D process to this but it does not justify, IMHO, the price tag of 1000E. The snapmaker multitool printer is cheaper that this (or was i havent check it recently). And i'm fairly sure that the only place that you could get the printing material are from Prusa or an affiliated site and that means, again, a rather increased price tag with no alternatives. And from my perspective Prusa is .. kind of indifferent to the XL and im not sure that is going to be a flawless integration. I mean i'm still waiting for a rather straightforward way to print with multidiameter nozzles in the XL, which was advertised as a plus on a multihead XL. And i dont mean fiddling around in Prusaslicer to make it work. Or even a proper cooling mod for the XL. I'll wait and see where this goes. If it was around 300E i would probably order it and play around with it (depending also on the materials cost) but not with this price tag and with how Prusa handled the XL.
As for why doesnt anyone build new head ... well i think the complexity of the endeavor doesnt worth it. I mean lets skip cnc, laser and anything that contaminates the printer. What other suggestion are there? A pen/blade plotter? Does it worth the cost and effort (500E head to hold a pen). A magnet,nut,ball bearing placing head. Again doesnt worth it and how often is this necessary?
RE: Hollow filament as delivery for liquid… Need details.
I totally get your hesitation. The hollow filament idea sounds cool, but yeah, it raises a ton of questions about cost, material waste, and cleanup. If they’re using a tube, it’s bound to get messy, especially if you’re mixing materials inside. The $1k price tag definitely feels like it needs more clarity on how everything works. Printing molds and adding silicone could be more cost-effective and practical for now, honestly. A syringe extruder sounds way more approachable—imagine mixing materials for cool effects without the complexity!