Tag Archives: 3d printing pen

Innovative CreoPop 3D Printing Pen Ditches Heat for UV Light

Posted on by
UV 3D Printing Pen

There is still room for improvements in the 3D printing field, as the creators of this pen suggest. Instead of heat, CreoPop uses UV light to make matter more adequate for 3D printing.

3D printers in the form of pens are definitely not a novelty, as these things have been around for a couple of years, now. However, researchers and inventors haven’t played around with the way raw materials are melted in order to give birth to new things. While heat is effective for melting polymers, it’s also quite dangerous, especially when used in such small devices as a 3D printing pen. With that in mind, the developers of the CreoPop pen thought that UV light could be a much safer solution

CreoPop didn’t ditch only dangerous heat in the favor of UV light, but it also replaced traditional polymers with a liquid resin. As soon as this material is extruded from the pen, UV light cures and hardens it. As a consequence, the risk of skin burns is reduced to zero, fact that makes CreoPop adequate even for children.

However, CreoPop is not without downsides. The meltable plastic used by conventional 3D printers is getting cheaper and cheaper, while the proprietary cartridges used by this pen cost between $2-3. Each of these can be used for making a 46-foot line of plastic. Forcing people to buy the company’s own refills brings to memory not only typical 3D printers, but also inkjet 3D printers, whose consumables often cost more than the device itself.

Speaking of the price of the device, CreoPop costs $89, or at least that’s how much the company making it will ask in the near future, when a crowdfunding campaign will be launched on Indiegogo. At that price, the 3D printing pen will come with 5 cartridges, and the expected shipping date is in Q1 2015.

Admittedly, we’ve come a long way in this field, and I don’t refer only to how the materials are extruded from 3D printers. Now there are some 3D printers that use metals and even wood, others that print veins and ears, so it shouldn’t surprise us that advancements are made every day. After all, every different approach takes us closer to what might be the perfect 3D printer.

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about the LIX 3D printing pen that enables you to draw in midair and the BioPen 3D printer for orthopedic implants.

LIX 3D Printing Pen Enables You to Draw in Midair

Posted on by
LIX 3D Printing Pen 02

After showing us what can be achieved with 3D printing, the bright minds of the world felt the need to miniaturize the printers, and this is how the world’s smallest 3D printing pen was created.

LIX is not exactly the first 3D printing pen, as the 3Doodler and others preceded it. However, it seems to be the first one to do the things right. It has a sleek design, weighs only 40 grams and is extremely easy to use and power.

The manufacturers describe the product as follows: “LIX 3D printing pen has the similar function as 3D printers. It melts and cools colored plastic, letting you create rigid and freestanding structures. Lix has a hot-end nozzle that is power supplied from USB 3.0 port. The plastic filament ABS/PLA is introduced in the upper extremity of Lix Pen. The filament goes through a patented mechanism while moving through the pen to finally reach the hot-end nozzle which melts and cools it down. An interesting fact about this light-weight, engineered pen is that these structures can be formed in any imaginable shape.”

In terms of filaments, LIX works perfectly fine both with ABS and PLA, but there’s no word about the price of these. The functionality of the miniature 3D printer is somehow affected by the fact that it can only be powered from a USB 3.0 port. There are plenty of USB wall chargers capable of delivering an equivalent current, but what about people that want to 3D print on the road and they only have their old notebook with them?

At the moment, the developers of the LIX 3D printing pen are running a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter, but the compensation tiers are pretty odd. Very early birds can get the device for $70, early birds for $120 and regular backers for $135. Unfortunately, both early bird spots are gone, so anyone wanting the 3D printing pen will have to pay the retail price. At press time, people backed the project with more than 5 times the initial goal, so there’s no doubt that the LIX pen will become a reality in December, when the manufacturer promises to deliver the product.

The LIX 3D printing pen only comes in two colors, Black Matte and Grey Matte, so hopefully one of them matches your style, in case you like the concept.

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about the 3Doodler pen that lets you print 3D figures freehand and the BioPen that helps surgeons 3D print orthopedic implants.

SwissPen 3D printing pen brings 3Doodler competition well before launch

Posted on by

Image

One's an anomaly, two's a trend, right? And certainly after 3Doodler managed to collect a staggering $2.3 million on Kickstarter (after a modest $30,000 goal), no one would be particularly surprised to see a few other folks rushing to grab a piece of the 3D printing pen action. Really, it's a fairly simple idea with impeccable timing, a glue gun-like device that melts plastic and essentially lets you draw in mid-air as it cools, arriving in the midst of a desktop 3D printing explosion.

From what we can tell, the SwissPen is an awfully similar product with two distinctions. First, the company proudly flaunts the fact that the device was designed and is assembled in Switzerland, a fact it assures us is reflected in the quality of the product. Second, the $103 pen (plus international shipping) is expected to ship in October, which puts it well ahead of the $99 3Doodler's anticipated February ship date. The first batch, the company cautions us, is pretty limited -- which is likely to be less of a concern with the 3Doodler, given that company's rather generous backing. It's creators assure us, however, that they're hard at work on accessories, new colors and more for the device.

Update: 3Doodler contacted us to clarify the ship date. Those who backed the pen will be getting their device next month. February is being listed as the "latest shipping date" for folks who pre-order the device now.

Filed under:

Comments

Source: SwissPen