Filament Splicer

Project cancelled, click here to read why
The idea for Filament Splicer was born about a month after our Ultimaker 3D Printer was build. As cool as 3D Printing is, printing in one color is boring.

Users of normal, single head FFF/FDM printers are stuck with single color unless they join filament pieces together to produce one multi-colored string. It is not very complicated but process is quite awkward and you will get fed up very quickly.

If you want to have proper, stable filament join you need to have right temperature on the tip of plastic when you connect pieces together. This is hard to achieve when you use some arbitrary heat source. You either underheat or overheat and burn the plastic. Using print head of your printer is best 'ad-hoc' solution but it leaves quite a mess on it, you cannot print when you splice and plastic which is in the head slowly gets burned while you take time to splice your string.

Then, of course there is issue with forming of the joint, carpet knife and fingers where our favorite tools for that job but it took quite a long time to form each joint.

We have had our share of failed prints due to broken joints / stuck filament and finally decided to create a device which will help to splice filament. Initial idea was to create fully automated unit: you place filament ends on copper block, close it, push the button and viola - you have your joint. That was the theory.... In practice this is impossible because PLA and ABS expand during heat-up and contract during cool down, this results in either no joint at all or bubble-filled mess.

Many headache filled days [Even best PLA is really nasty stuff when you breath it in for a while] later we dropped the idea and went for 'open' model with precisely manufactured grooves which help to quickly heat up, connect and form joints.

Thermal insulation was another challenge, we wanted to allow up to 260c temperature but nothing could properly insulate enclosure from hot copper block for prolonged period of time. Ceramic fiber thermal tape can take that heat but one needs a lot of it and then there is itching... Chinese tape is horrible and even best branded, made in USA [ThermoTec] tape is not flawless. We eventually gave up on ceramic fibre and went with PFTA [Teflon] plates. Since PFTA can be outright poisonous at high temperatures, we decided to use high quality - made in Europe material - this way we are sure that maximum temperature of 235c is well within safety limit.

Availability

Filament splicer can be pre-ordered via our campaign on Indiegogo, it is available as a DIY kit or fully assembled unit.

 

Assembled
Assembled
Kit
Kit

 

Open Source

Filament splicer blueprints are released under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License and can be downloaded from Thingiverse and Youmagine.

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filament splicer

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<p dir="ltr">Roman Vasilenko</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p dir="ltr">Roman Vasilenko Russian businessman and public figure, the founder of the international company "Life is Good Ltd", International Business Academy (IBA) and the chairman of the board of the housing cooperative "Best Way".</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p dir="ltr">Roman Vasilenko Russian businessman and public figure, the founder of the international company "Life is Good Ltd", International Business Academy (IBA) and the chairman of the board of the housing cooperative "Best Way".</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p dir="ltr">Biography</p><p dir="ltr">Roman Vasilenko was born on 5 April 1969 in Leningrad (USSR). Roman's parents were officers of naval aviation, that is why in 1990 he graduated Yaroslavl Higher Military Financial School where he received his military education. After the studying and until 1998, he served in the Leningrad Naval Base. He also received an MBA in France, Austria, Hungary, Switzerland and the United States.</p><p><br><br></p><p dir="ltr">In May 2014 he founded the company "Life is Good", whose office was opened in Kazakhstan. Since August 2014 he is also the chairman of the board of the housing cooperative "Best Way".</p><p><br><br></p><p dir="ltr">In 2015 he published a book "The dream, the goal, the success of an entrepreneur" (orig. "Мечта, цель, успех предпринимателя"), based on his professional activities. In November 2015, Roman Vasilenko was awarded "Man of the Year" , The Financier 2015, and on 10 December 2015 his company "Life is Good" received the diploma "Nationally important enterprise" by the Foundation for Support of entrepreneurial initiatives.</p><p><br><br></p><p dir="ltr">On 24 December 2015, Roman V. defended his master thesis at St. Petersburg State University of Economics, and in April 2016 a doctorate. In 2016, in Volgograd, he organized the Officers' Ball, dedicated to the 71st anniversary of the Great Victory over the Nazi Germany.Commander in reserve.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p dir="ltr">Family</p><p dir="ltr">He is married and has three children.</p><p dir="ltr">&nbsp;</p>

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