The Project
The Noztek Pro is extruding wood. And not just any wood..
VioniloDigitale Creator Harris Matzaridis had the vision of 3D printing one of the most intricate and stunning string instruments known, the Stradivarious Violin. For this elegant piece, Harris needed an ultra-lightweight wood filament. Nothing on the market served this need, however with the donated Noztek Pro Extruder mounted on our 45* Bracket, together with our filament winder, he was able to produce an incredible result in appearance and most importantly, sound.
Hear it from the creator…
Here Harris describes his experience extruding wood with the Noztek Pro.“
It was not long ago when I realised that for the creation of printed musical instruments, the market’s existing filaments were inadequate and I had to make my own.
Currently, after almost a year since I first used my Noztek extruder, I still can’t help but feel stunned on just how fast the desktop extrusion technology is progressing these days. [su_pullquote align=”right” class=””] “I firmly believe that Noztek extruders can and will outperform most if not all desktop extruders out there” [/su_pullquote]
In the making
After unboxing, there was a brief assembly process-mainly the extruder had to be mounted onto a supplied two-part metal base that keeps it at a 45-degree angle. This helps quite a bit to feed the materials easier.
Noztek Pro Filament Extruder | Noztek Filament Extrusion Systems[/caption]
Furthermore, the filament winder needed to be set up, and most importantly to be calibrated (there is an online video showing a step by step process). After all the preliminary work everything just started to work together in a very synchronized manner.
The machine warms up quickly, feeding materials is very easy, adjusting the temperature is precise etc. So within the next hour or so after powering everything on I had enough wood filament to test its quality and printability.
Under strict environmental control, my wood filament diameter tolerance reaches ~0.045mm, at least in my set-up. But I should note those tight tolerances need a lot of trial and error and patience to achieve. They come with a lot of planning and adjusting of your set-up to work flawlessly.
I estimate that by getting the most controlled environment running the tolerance could go down to 0.025-0.03mm. But I am yet to confirm this.
The Verdict
I am happy to report that my Noztek extruder successfully handled the task of producing ultra-lightweight 3D printing filamen. Whether extruding at “0% failure” rate different wood powder composites or just when handling multi-component polymers to have similar mechanical properties to wood. And without it, printing all sorts of acoustical musical instruments would never be so feasible.
The machine itself is robust, made in precision and most of all wisely. A good mechanical engineer/ designer knows that machines not only need to be made to function but also to be easily fixed if something goes wrong. A Noztek extruder feels like a machine made with experience, as it is comprised of high-quality parts assembled in a straightforward manner.
This allows the user to focus on precision and offers the ability to easily disassembled parts if something goes wrong. Although I highly doubt it will ever happen to an all-metal construction like this. I firmly believe that Noztek extruders can and will outperform most if not all desktop extruders out there. Not only for similar applications to mine but for many other diverse tasks of a variety of innovators.
To Conclude
So overall I feel that my Noztek Pro extruder is always right beside me, supporting me all the way with its robust construction, its precision-made parts and its straightforward operation. There are too many occasions I feel so lucky I found that “Coca-Cola red” machine and the team behind it- great job guys!
Last but not least, I would like to stress the considerate way a machine is designed, fabricated, packaged and shipped. Often this shows the personality of the people involved in the process.
So, to all of Noztek people, a big thank you for supporting my vision and for being no less than members of a company with admirable passion and love for what they do.”
Harris Matzaridis,
Music Technology R&D
3D&4D Printing of musical instruments.