We received a quick update from the folks of Structu3D, makers of the Discov3ry paste extruder.
The Discov3ry is a very interesting attachment to your personal 3D printer: it extrudes paste, not plastic. It does not have a heater, so it works only on materials that are malleable at room temperature. But there are so many substances in the category! With this extruder, you’ll be able to extrude many types of food, even if they’re not a paste. Just toss them into a blender and you will create paste pretty quickly out of nearly any edible ingredient.
And it’s not only food you can extrude. Here we see a video of a sample silicone print using the extruder. This clearly is a very robust object that can take a lot of punishment. Imagine being able to print silicone items like gaskets, lids, covers and connectors.
For now the extruder is marketed as an add-on, where you can install it as a second extruder on an existing machine. Or perhaps you can build your own machine and install the Discov3ry as the sole extruder to create a paste-only 3D printer.
We’re told by Structur3D’s Director of Business Development, Amir Solowiejczyk, the company intends on opening up sales sometime in June, but is taking pre-orders today. They’re pursuing a passive marketing approach for now to ensure the company is not overwhelmed with orders. For a company having too many orders is almost as challenging as having too few, as it is a lot of work to deliver large quantities of product, particularly for the Kitchener, Canada-based company that currently has only a team of five. But they’re intending on adding another three soon.
In the future, Solowiejczyk explains, they may be integrated directly into existing machines, but they would have to work on relationships with specific companies to achieve this. (Hint: if you work for a 3D printer manufacturer, you might want to give Structur3D a call.)
They’ll also be pursuing distribution deals in the future, but for now they’re focusing on the products purchased during their very successful Kickstarter campaign, and in fact they’ve been delivering good units to customers already.
All seems good in the world of Structur3D, but for those of you who are lucky enough to have a Discov3ry Paste Extruder in your hands and are looking for a pasty substance to extrude, remember that “Chunky Don’t Work”.
Via Structur3D
