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The Prometheus System is a cheap multi-filament upgrade for budget 3D printers

Regular 3D printer have faced a problem since their inception: using mutliple colours and materials in a single print. Well The Prometheus System is aiming to change that by being a cheap upgrade to give most printers the ability to use two different filament types at once.

Let’s note that this technology already exists. It has been available in premium 3D printers for a while. The problem is that it is noticeably more expensive, and you’ll have to lay out that money before you do anything else.

But there’s a hole in the market for a device that can upgrade existing, cheaper printers. This would allow people to get into the business of 3D printing easier, and then upgrade at a later stage without laying out all their money.

So, how does it work? The Prometheus System is an all-metal hot end which can be fed by two different filament types. The single nozzle can be connected to popular 3D printer motherboards and then fed code that tells it when to switch between its two filaments.

A big worry with a system like this is “bleeding” where the two colours or material types get mixed. Creators DisTech Automation are adament that they’ve solved this problem wby purging the nozzle of previous materials. You can see it in action below in a particularly impressive example where blue and red filament are closely overlayed with no visible mixing into messy purple.

So, how much does it cost? Like many new technologies these days  DisTech Automation are relying on a Kickstarter campaign to raise their funding.

While the campaign will only go live on September 6th, 2016, you can view a draft version of it right now.

It tells us that the cheapest way to get this in its entirety is the Early Bird coming in at 256 CAD (R2 860). When those are no longer available the regular price will be 299 CAD (R3 340). Note that these prices are for the entire system, which comes with the printer head, an extruder and a feeder. There are cheaper so-called “upgrade” versions which come without the feeder.

If all of this sounds extremely familiar to you – a multi-filament upgrade system being funded on Kickstarter – you may be thinking of the “The Palette” which achieves the same goal. The difference is that The Palette costs $999 (R14 660)  can can use up to four different filaments.

The fact that The Prometheus System is so much cheaper could be what it needs to fit into that hole in the market.

If you want to know more check out the soon to be live Kickstarter campaign page or an interview with DisTech Automation CEO Eric Sammut.

[Source – 3D Printing Industry via Kickstarter]

 

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