NOZTEK UK launch a professional version of their ABS/PLA filament extruder for 3D printing

FULHAM, U.K. - Feb. 17, 2014 - PRLog -- Noztek UK commissioned their engineers to improve their existing Noztek extruder. The brief was to speed up the time to create 1Kg of filament to around 180 minutes while retaining consistency and tight filament tolerances. They also stipulated that as many components as possible be manufactured in the UK, this way they were able to monitor the quality of each specific element.

To increase the filament extrusion speed production and tolerance levels  the Noztek engineering team manufactured a larger screw with a bigger barrel, the channel depth is 0.25mm (the distance between screw flight width and the inside diameter of the barrel) which improves the plastic melting process, thus offering much tighter filament tolerances. The new barrel is now one piece, while further improvements have been made to the thrust bearing arrangement and an upgraded bespoke UK sourced heater element, which offers a more consistent nozzle temperature. Taking a cue from existing industrial single screw extruders they have added a built in breaker plate into the die which eliminates any unwanted debris that could contaminate the final extruded filament.

Noztek have also upgraded the gear motor to a UK model and added a variable speed control circuit, this gives the operator enormous flexibility and allows for tight screw rotation speed when extruding different types of plastic. We are currently testing extrusion speed and particularly the filament tolerances as we are looking to achieve 0.04 or better to enable precise 3D printing. The whole unit has been designed to be upgradeable, which means current users can purchase an upgrade which will allow full control of the unit via a USB interface

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The launch of the upgraded Noztek Pro extruder will be quickly followed by an additional winder unit, allowing the filament to be wound neatly onto a spool.