Tech Breakdown E3D Collection

E3D is known throughout the 3D printing industry for their high-quality, open-source 3D printer components. They’ve been a part of desktop 3D printing for a long time, nearly since the beginning, developing a keen sense for the capabilities and performance desired by industry at large. With their experience acumen, E3D readily creates new and powerful nozzles, hotends, and extruder systems.

Let's break it down-

Nozzles

For most users, nozzles are treated as a component to be replaced as it wears down, but with a catalog as wide and deep as E3D’s, it’s easy to see that nozzles can be more than simple consumables. While the unofficial industry standard nozzle is made of brass with a 0.4mm orifice, E3D produces nozzles in a variety of materials and sizes; from brass to hardened steel and 0.15mm all the way up to the gigantic 1.4mm. Brass is a great multi-purpose nozzle for homogenous material printing like PLA, ABS, PETG, or nylon, but for abrasive and composite materials like carbon fiber-infused Nylon, choosing the E3D NozzleX made of super hard 68HRC Tool Steel and coated in a high temperature non-stick coating is the ideal choice that will last nearly indefinitely with a lifetime guarantee backing it. Or for high-temperature materials like PEKK or PEI, a plated copper nozzle can easily reach and hold the temperatures needed for printing. Small, high-detail models excel with a 0.15mm E3D nozzle, but for high-strength and quick part turnaround, the 1.4mm Super Volcano nozzle is the nozzle to beat.

Hotends

Every nozzle needs a hotend, and E3D has the lineup to prove it. There are single and dual extrusion options; groove mounted or threaded hotends; dual color or dual material; air cooled or liquid cooled; low temperature and high temperature; there are even different hotends designed with a longer melt zone to achieve high-flow 3D printing.  Each hotend has been designed to excel for a specific purpose without forgetting about the features and performance that drives E3D forward. Most will be familiar with the E3D V6 for its sleek, modular design and the sheer volume of mods and kits that incorporate the E3D V6 onto printers of all price tags and new or old. Only a couple different parts make up the E3D V6, which makes it easy to swap out and upgrade any of the components as new ones are released, like a titanium heat break or a plated copper heater block, and ensure your 3D printer always has the latest and greatest from E3D.

Extruders

E3D’s first extruder, the Titan Universal Extruder, as the name suggests, was designed to be a universal base for any 3D printer to utilize, 1.75mm and 2.85mm alike. With a groove mounted output, you could connect an E3D hotend directly to it for direct-drive 3D printing, or alternatively a groove-mount bowden connector for Bowden 3D printers. The Titan featured a compact 3:1 gear ratio to get more torque out of the extruder motor to prevent skipped-steps while printing, and for flexible 3D printing, a constrained filament path made it that much easier to 3D print with TPU and TPE. From the Titan came the Titan Aero, a direct-drive upgrade to combine the extruder cover and heatsink into one component, gaining back 25mm in Z compared to the original Titan. That brings us to the pinnacle of E3D’s extruders: the Hemera: a precision machined, compact, dual-drive extruding powerhouse. Filament is constrained even further and with an adjustable tensioner you can tune the Hemera for rigid and flexible materials alike. But what really brings these features all together is the user-friendly mounting points for easy integration, no matter the 3D printer you are modifying.

Year after year, E3D has continued to develop and refine their line of 3D printer components, creating new and exciting products that remain affordable even for a hobbyist. To learn more and to order your E3D 3D printer components today, check out the collection here.