The Fuse Clamp could mean the end of wasted 3D printing filament. This small device that just launched a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo has been developed to weld two ends of standard 3D printer filament together, creating seamless, never-ending spools of your favourite printing materials.
Everyone who uses a 3D printer has a collection of unused spooled filament. Either it isn’t long enough for a full print, or it isn’t short enough to just throw away without feeling wasteful. While a few of the newer 3D printers will allow you to change spools mid-print, a common experience of 3D printer users is that if you run out of filament while you are 3D printing something then your entire print will most likely be ruined. So reluctantly you probably just hang onto these small spools of filament, collecting more and more of them as you continue to use your 3D printer.
Designed by Pedro M Librero, the Fuse Clamp is a very simple device that could end this kind of waste. Just insert the ends of two spools of filament, clamp them down and they will be perfectly welded together. You don’t even need to stop your printer. Take a look at a video of the Fuse Clamp in action. It’s not very exciting, but it does show that the Fuse Clamp works extremely well, and seems really easy to use:
The device has a small heating element in the centre of the clamp while the rest remains as cool as possible. This design allows for only a small portion of the filament to melt, while the rest stays solid ensuring that the filament won’t get stuck or jam inside of it. The shape of the closed clamp ensures that each end of the filament will join perfectly with each other and not create any imperfections or irregularities that could cause the new conjoined filament to snag or jam the extruder.
Here is a very brief computer animation showing exactly how the Fuse Clamp works:
The Fuse Clamp will be available in two sizes, one to weld 1.75mm filament together and the other for 3.0mm filament. It works with just about any type of spooled material, including ABS, PLA, PVA and Nylon. You can even mix multiple colours together to create multi-color prints without the need for dual extruders.
The Indiegogo campaign is running until August 6th and it has currently received about 40% of the total requested amount of the $4700. You can back the project and purchase individual Fuse Clamps for about $80 each or if you’re a retailer you can become a Fuse Clamp dealer and stock them in your store.
