14 DAY TRIAL // Most 3D printers can use a single material at a time, and some can't even safely pause a print job in order to let you change the filament manually. Russian company Picaso 3D has decided to become one of the few whose products allow for it.
Picaso 3D has formally released the Designer Pro 250 3D printer, which as you can see is quite stocky, owing to its closed-chamber design.
Some consumer 3D printers, and indeed most of the DIY and crowdfunded models, use an open-air design. They print well enough, but aren't protected from dust and accidents, and they don't spare you the smell and fumes either.
Closed chambers make sure you can actually bear to stand/sit nearby and do some other type of work while the printer is working. The Picaso Designer Pro has a more important asset than that, though.
Meet the Designer Pro with Jet Switch dual extruder
The dual extruder allows for the material to be quickly changed without pausing the print, as the switch is done in less than a second. 0.25 seconds to be exact. Normally, it takes about 5 for other printers to do this.
This makes it very easy and safe to apply support structures to objects, support that can easily be removed at the end of the process.
In the case of prints where the support scaffold is made from the same material, even the best care can sometimes fail to eliminate all the evidence of their use after print completion.
However, dual-extruder arrays allow for the scaffold to be made of a completely different material, one of distinct color as well.
And with Polygon 2.0 firmware (allows two materials to be printed at the same time), it's possible to use the Designer Pro 250 for objects made of ABS plastic (soluble in acetone ) and polystyrene (soluble in limonene), or of PLA and water-soluble PVA. Simulated rubber, elastic, nylon, polycarbonates, ABS copolymers and even PET are supported as well.
Other than the Jet Switch, the Designer pro 250 3D printer benefits from a build volume of 200 x 200 x 210 mm / 7.87 x 7.87 x 8.26 inches. Finally, the print speed is of 3 to 30 cm/h and the minimum thickness of layers is 50 microns.
Availability and pricing
The Picaso 3D Designer Pro 250 3D printer will have a price of $2,400 / €1,957 when it goes up for pre-order in January 2015. Kind of steep, but that's dual-extruder printing for you. They can't all cost under five hundred bucks.
