RepRap community member and 3D printing guru Richard Horne, aka RichRap is on a mission. Following years of experience — some good, some bad and some just plain old ugly — with 3D printing filament, Richard has taken it upon himself (I can think of noone better to lead this charge) to bring about stanardisation when it comes to how 3D printing filament is supplied.
Richard has been pondering this for a while, I know as I have been involved with several of the ponderings, but now he’s taken it to the next level — action.
Richard is calling on all 3D printing filament manufacturers to agree a defined 3D printing filament standard for spool size, shape and mounting.
In essence, he’s posing some questions to the 3D printing community:
- Can the 3D printing community help develop that standard?
- Can we make it Eco-friendly and recyclable?
- Does anyone want it?
He’s going to do his utmost to find out.
The reasons behind this drive essentially come down to the frustration and hours wasted on sorting filament before even being able to print. Take the different filaments shown here ….
Every single one is different, bare coils or reels, some are even different from the same manufacturer.
As a result Richard and The 3D Printing Association have launched an open campaign to find out if a universal 3D printing filament spool standard can be implemented between different manufacturers.
The goal is to find out what users want so a specification can be defined and anyone with an interest is being asked to get involved over on the RepRap Forum here.
