As Davide has made clear in previous posts on the company, Italian 3D printer manufacturer WASP has a unique business plan of saving the world and developing commercial products in the process. A large component of that world saving project is the construction of a large-format clay extrusion 3D printer for building homes from local sustainable materials in developing nations. While developing that machine, the company has managed to first create and then refine their DeltaWASP 2040 3D printer, a finely tuned desktop fabricator that, thanks to their giant clay printing project, has the ability to pause and restart mid-print and print ceramic materials. Now, the company is ready to supply that ceramic printing technology to the greater 3D printing community through the release of its new liquid deposit modeling (LDM) extruder.
Though WASP is also in the process of creating a ceramic-like filament, the LDM WASP extruder is capable of printing fluid-dense materials and advanced ceramics. The device consists of a screw extruder and pressure extruder that combine to give it the ability to pause and restart extrusion flow, thus giving it the ability to reach a high level of precision, according to the company. WASP lists the complete set that is included with the extruder as follows:
-“A 3 l tank
-An extrusion piston
-A stand for the tank
-A pressure reducer
-A return preventing valve
-A safety valve
-1 kg of porcelain
-A cochlea and an interchangeable pressure chamber
-A high-couple stepper engine
-An SD card which contains the .stl file for the two models PowerWASP and DeltaWASP, assembling instructions and some videos for preparation of the mixtures.”
Some of the innovations that the extruder brings to the table, the company claims, are a method for eliminating bubbles in the mixture, a system for controlling and retracting extrusion, and an outward pressure multiplier that allows the extruder to reach up to 40 bar, about 580 psi.
Though the system comes with a 7 kg tank, this can be replaced with a 15 kg tank, both of which are billed as easily refilled and cleaned. The piston within the tank, with its two 4 bar gaskets, drive the flow of the material through a teflon tube to the extruder and a valve on the back of the tank is set at 8 bar, allowing for a safety shut off. The extruder chamber contains a screw that increases the flow of the material significantly to 40 bar (about 580 psi), combining the safety of the tank with the efficiency of the extruder itself. The company suggests that this would be impossible using a standard pressure extruder without damaging the system.
And, because the air flows upward in their configuration, WASP claims the ability to eliminate bubbles. They also suggest that the screw allows for an increased density in the printing materials, which allows the print to solidify more quickly.
As one might expect, the LDM extruder is designed for WASP printers, but the company has designed it in such a way as to be easy to install on other machines. To do so, one must print a supporting cover, provided by WASP, hook the extruder to their print head, change the number of steps per millimeter in their printer management software to 400.
All of this is available for €650.00, a pretty decent price for something that allows a printer from creating plastic objects to anything viscous. Though I try not to endorse companies, I do get good feelings about WASP, both about their motivations as a business and the quality of their products. Davide says that they put a lot of love and care into assembling each machine and I’ve heard nothing but good things about their DeltaWASP 2040 3D printer. So there’s no reason for me not to believe that this extruder will be just as amazing as their other products.