Mar 2, 2016 | By Alec

Has any medium done more for consumer 3D printing than Kickstarter? We’ve long ago lost count of how many startups were able to get their 3D printers and accessories to their customers thanks to Kickstarter crowdfunding, and it’s good to see that the medium is still being used to its full potential. 3D Facture, who were previously very successful with their Draken DLP-SLA 3D printer through Kickstarter, are now again returning to that crowdfunding platform with a very interesting new product: the Fixer3D, a type of resin 3D printing pen specifically intended for fixing 3D printed surfaces (after support has been removed, for instance) and gluing differing resin parts together. Finishing your projects will never be easier.

You might remember 3D Facture from their crowdfunding successes about a year ago. The startup – based in Willow Grove, PA – was founded way back in 2013 by a team of engineers with the intentions of lowering the costs of high quality resin 3D printing. Last year, this resulted in an excellent $999 resin 3D printer that was perfect for home users on a budget. Kickstarter visitors evidently agreed, as the Draken was successfully funded with a massive $171,664 – the type of success every startup dreams of.

And their latest product looks like an excellent addition to the Draken, and indeed to any other resin 3D printer. We’ve all been faced with fantastic prints that took hours to complete, only to be disappointed when support material is removed and surfaces are scarred. In the case of resin 3D printing, the best approach is to draw some resin with a syringe and add some blobs to the surface in question – before curing it with a resin lamp. However, this doesn’t always work well as controlling the amount of extruded resin is often very difficult and the results are never quite what you expect.

Enter the Fixer, developed exactly became the 3D Facture team ran into these frustrating issues time and time again. Essentially, it’s a 3D printing pen that ensures you never pump too much resin onto scarred surfaces. “The Fixer will control the amount of resin extruded accurately via a programmable syringe pump. Tiny resin drops of the proper size will be injected into the defect area. If you inject too much resin, you can use the Fixer to suck resin back into the syringe,” they explain. “After you have the right amount of resin injected, you can cure it immediately afterward using the integrated UV LED light. The long life UV LED light has a tightly focused beam to insure rapid curing of the resin.”

It’s a very clever machine that uses a micro step motor and a replaceable syringe to give users full control over resin drops. The integrated UV LED light takes care of the rest. “The syringe extrudes/squeezes our UV curable resin onto object to be fixed/glued, then the UV LED is shed onto the UV curable resin to get it solidified. The UV LED can cure the resin in 1-30 seconds or less than a seconds. You can use it as your post-curing tool as well,” they say. It also works on every commonly used UV curable resin.

Don’t own a resin-based 3D printer? Even then, the fixer is a perfect addition to your maker’s arsenal. They also provide pre-filled resin syringes (with each syringe capable of performing 20 fixes). The resin will cure equally well on plastic filaments.

And there are a few other functions too – the Fixer will also work as the most precise glue tool for assembling 3D printed projects, for instance. You can also use it to insulate or fix electronic components on circuit boards, program the open source tool for other liquids and even use it as an extrusion head for a DIY 3D printer. “The applications are limitless because the Fixer firmware is open-source so you can easily customize it according to your needs! There are four pre-defined injection speeds through the switches inside the Fixer. You can also customize the injection speed, curing time or the operating sequence by modifying the open source firmware,” they say. Being cordless and featuring a USB-chargeable battery, it’s very easy to use.

The Fixer works on any UV curable resin, and it can also be used on prints from any type of 3D printers: FDM, SLA, DLP, SLS etc. The Fixer is, in short, a deceptively simple and very useful tool that makes you wonder why no one else has thought of it before. Interested? You can order one through Kickstarter now, with early bird packages being priced at $99 (shipping in June).

 

 

Posted in 3D Printer Accessories

 

 

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