B3 Innovations is intending to bring a bit of good old industrial manufacturing back to the western world with their upcoming project — Pico — a tiny, all metal 3mm filament hot-end for RepRap based 3D printers. Pico is made out of a single piece of 303 stainless steel with custom (brass) nozzle to maintain a solid, fluid-tight finish.
The project has undergone some vigorous testing before coming out into the open, in order to guarantee ideal printing results. After doing thermal studies, for example, Pico has high precision cooling fins in order to prevent jamming and overheating, resulting in the potential to print at up to 300˚C. Other parts have been factorized to the smallest possible pieces as well and precision-built with a no compromise attitude. The whole thing is machined in shops specializing in the aerospace industry – in the USA.
As Pico relies on the open source RepRap community, they are planning to publish all parts of the design after launching the hot-end to the market. There will also be a universal mount available, which should mean that Pico could be used on any FFF 3D printer.
If you want to take a closer look at Pico’s specs, hit the source link below. The hot-end is coming to Kickstarter, but the exact date hasn’t yet been published.
Source: B3 innovations
