You may have heard a little on the news about the 3D pen – a remarkable invention that allows us to draw 3D pictures that happens to be everyone’s favorite new product. Artists around the globe are throwing away their paintbrushes and turning to this new medium… and they’re not the only ones.
The 3D pen uses tough plastic as its source material, meaning that anything produced by it is tough and durable, in much the same way as it might be had it been printed by a 3D printer. The pens use ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene) which is a usually clear thermoplastic that can be colored to create different effects. Creatives everywhere can’t get enough… and neither can we!
Get a 3d pen for your kids here. (don’t forget to read our reviews)
So how do 3d pens work?
3D pens work similarly to the way a 3D printer does: by layering heated and cooled plastic on top of each other until the sculpture is finished. Tough ABS plastic is inserted as the pen’s ‘ink’, the pen comes attached to a wire which, generally speaking, will run off the mains. So plug your pen in and you are ready to write. Watch out for that super-hot nib though.
The more complicated answer is that the plastic is heated to super-thermal temperatures by the inbuilt heater inside your device. Upon contact with the air, this thin stream of plastic cools nearly instantly, allowing you to draw in all directions – even vertically if you so desire.
Interestingly; early prototypes of the 3D pen were made using a glue gun!
Which can have the same effect when treated the correct way. When the thick layer of glue met contact with the air it dried instantly. Once researchers saw that their design worked it was only a small matter of changing the materials the pen utilized to accommodate a stronger, more stable and more durable end creation.
Items drawn with a 3D pen should be tough enough for you to pick them up.
They ought to be in – you guessed it – 3D, but you could use it like a regular pen if you wanted to. You are able to draw on a surface and then peel the design off of it, thereby allowing you to place your artwork anywhere you like!
The 3D pen can draw anything plastic
After taking the creative industries by storm it was only a matter of time before other businesses started to see the potential of this product. Small parts can be replaced by drawing them, instead of sending out an order and waiting for weeks. The pen can draw anything plastic – so it is able to replace anything plastic. With such a variety of uses, it is only fair to say that this nifty little piece of tech is going to be around for a few years yet… hopefully with some exciting improvements and features set to make all of our lives easier!