Take A PEEK At This 3D Printer

Normally, when you think of PEEK in 3D printing, you think of a part made of PEEK, suitable for lower-temperature plastics. [ND-3D] has a different idea: printing with PEEK. You can get the details over on Hackaday.io, and there are a few YouTube videos below. Using a special controller and a halogen lamp, you can modify your own printer to use this exotic material often found in printer hot ends.

Logically, if PEEK is used near the hot end of regular printers, it must need a higher temperature to print. PEEK has a glass transition temperature of about 143C and melts at 343. Compare this to PLA, which melts between 150 and 180 and has a glass transition temperature of only 60C.

The cost is reportedly under £200. Contrary to common wisdom, [ND-3D] suggests using an open frame for the printer. You do need precise control of the halogen light. A custom board handles that. The halogen heater wraps around a conventional hot end. Looks like it would keep your shop pretty toasty on a cold morning.

We were looking for more build details, and we hope they are forthcoming. It appears you can buy the boards, but we’d like more information on what makes them different. It isn’t clear to us that it isn’t just control of AC power and a heater, but there isn’t much information about what you have to do differently to work in PEEK or other exotic materials.

We’ve seen other high-temperature printers, of course. Not to mention, there is no shortage of high-end commercial offerings.