14 DAY TRIAL // 3D printing technology usually takes the shape of a machine with a print bed and extruder, or a resin tank from which items are “grown” by bombarding them with ultraviolet light. The process is called “curing.” Now though, we have a pen that can build things just as you want them.
Well, that might be pushing it, since hand-eye coordination and dexterity will play a big role in whether or not what you “draw” truly reflects your inner vision.
A designer by the name of Anton Suvorov has introduced the Lix pen, which is about as big as a normal fountain pen (a bit longer and thicker, but not by much).
The Lix is not, however, a pen you use to draw. Instead, it is a 3D printer that makes things out of molten plastic.
The concept is the same one behind the 3Doodler by Wobble Works, which we covered extensively, whenever it cropped up after its successful crowd-funding campaign on Kickstarter (made over 2 million dollars instead of the few thousand it needed to get off the ground).
Lix has buttons on the side, which control the extrusion rate and oriented power (which you get by plugging the pen in a USB port).
You can still draw things on paper, or cardboard, or a tabletop or whatever else, but you can also make 3D structures, like with the 3Doodler.
If you're patient, you can layer the plastic into vertical rods, so long as you also print a good, strong base on whatever surface you're using.
The best shapes and building models will still need you to follow blueprints. You “draw” the sides in plastic after a schematic, then lift them and “glue” them together by printing the connections after that. All in all, the Lix Pen has many similarities with glue guns.
The only drawback of the Lix Pen is that you can't get the extruder to come out in rods thicker than a millimeter or so. The 3Doodler, as fat as it is, can turn out thicker sticks.
With that as the only disadvantage, however, there is little chance of the Lix failing to carve a place for itself on the 3D printing market.
After all, it has the advantages of aesthetic appeal and ergonomy – improves productivity by being comfortable, easy to hold onto, especially over long periods. Designers of props and other objects might end up liking it quite a lot.
The Lix 3D Pen has a price of $140 / €140. It's almost twice as much as the $75 / €75 of the 3Doodler, but then again, the Lix is less than half the size and looks a lot better.
