The Tungsten Carbide Nozzle Offers a Balance Between Wear Resistance and High Performance

Your nozzle is the last and final step in your extrusion system, and maybe the most important part of your 3D printer. Plastic flows through the small orifice, thanks to the pressure generated by the extruder pinch system. This high flow can reach a pressure as high as 250 times the atmospheric pressure (25 MPa).

With plain plastic, any common metal can easily hold up against the flow. Unfortunately, once we start using plastic filaments with hard reinforcement fibers such as carbon and glass, things start to get more complicated; these reinforcement materials will scratch the inner wall of your nozzle orifice as they pass due to the flow and pressure. Both glass and carbon are known to be very hard, a lot harder than any metals, resulting in what is known as abrasion inside your nozzle.

The more you print; the worse it gets…

That’s why Montreal Startup Dyze Design, a dedicated and passionate team working on the development of high performance 3D printer parts, created the Tungsten Carbide Nozzle: a state of the art nozzle that offers good durability and performance for almost any 3D printer, such as Ultimaker, Raise3D, Prusa, Makerbot, Robo, LulzBot, Flashforge and many more.

“Tungsten carbide, not to be confounded with tungsten alloy, which is metal, is the ceramic of choice when it comes to wear and abrasion resistance. Cutting tools for steel and tool steel are made from tungsten carbide. It is also used extensively in the mining industry as a button insert for crushing rocks,” says Philippe Carrier, Dyze Design’s Chief Research Officer. “Moreover, the high thermal performance of the tungsten carbide keeps the nozzle tip hot, thus allowing faster printing speed without sacrificing the quality.”

In fact, the thermal conductivity ensures that heat is able to travel up to the tip of your nozzle, keeping your molten plastic at the right temperature. Having a bad heat conductor may lead to colder extrusion, thus poor layer bonding and greater flow fluctuation. For these reasons, any kinds of steels and ruby nozzles will lead to lower extrusion flow.

Why should I use the tungsten carbide nozzle?

• Ultra wear resistant
  The high hardness of tungsten carbide will provide a carefree extrusion experience. Its unparalleled wear resistance will ensure that both the nozzle diameter and flat will keep the same dimension, and so will your printed parts.
• Low pushing force
  The high thermal conductivity of both the nozzle tip and body will pump all the required heat to maintain an even temperature while extruding. Viscosity highly depends on the plastic temperature for a constant shear rate. The flow pressure will be constant resulting in excellent results and stability. The ease of pushing the filament will give an extra margin for your extruder safety.
• Faster speed
  Due to the high thermal performance of the nozzle in general, the printing speed can be pushed even further without sacrificing the quality. The special shape inside the nozzle allowed by the manufacturing technique improves the flow where the diameter gets reduced, thus allowing a faster flow rate.
• Low friction
  The whole nozzle is electroless nickel plated for enhanced slippery properties. Plastic will slide on the nozzle instead of sticking to it. This result is cleaner parts and less dragging problems.
• Any material
  From printing PLA to carbon fiber reinforced plastics, this nozzle can handle anything. The low friction coating greatly helps with flexible filaments allowing, them to slide through the nozzle. A single nozzle will offer quality prints, wear resistance, and high flow, so there is no need to get a ton of different nozzles when a single one can offer the best of all worlds.
• Unbeatable price / performance
  Tungsten carbide is easier to produce than corundum (Sapphire, Ruby, etc) and the performance is very similar for abrasion and much more performant for thermal conductivity. The use of steel makes it very easy to manufacture and offers amazing thermal performance. The whole package is a win-win situation in terms of performance and price.

Comparing a reference brass nozzle from Ultimaker, the tungsten carbide nozzle is much easier to extrude. In fact, the output flow can be increased by around 80% while having the same results.

The tungsten carbide nozzle, now on Kickstarter

Dyze Design just launched a Kickstarter campaign for this nozzle. The Kickstarter campaign, which ends on April 4, set an initial funding goal of $15,000 CAD. The campaign will help them ensuring that they can measure performances in extrusion, flow and oozing, make improvements on the different molds, manufacture more nozzle sizes and do high-temperature tests.

Dyze Design wanted to create a high performance, yet affordable product. That’s why the pricing is very reasonable. Rewards start at $48 CAD for Super Early Bird, which includes one nozzle available in 0.4mm, 0.6mm, 0.9mm or 1.2mm. For $115 CAD, you can get a double pack or the triple pack for $172. There are also a lot more rewards, such as the super early bird 4 pack, 6 pack, 10 pack, 25 pack or even 50 pack.

Shipping is expected to begin in September 2018.

You can find more information on the Kickstarter page here.

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