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.
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