Multistruder, The First Quad Filament Extruder, Seeks Funding Via Kickstarter

A Kickstarter project put online by a New Jersey man, named Michael Stabile, is seeking $65,000 in pledges from backers. His project? The Multistruder, a plugin to your existing 3D printer that extrudes four different filaments instead of the the typical one or two that other 3D printers on the market do.

Using four different filaments, the Multistruder is capable of integrating graphics and text right in the 3d-printed object as opposed to being painted on later. Currently, most 3D printers only extrude one filament, which means that there’s only one color in which each item can be printed.

The Multistruder also has the capacity of extruding different plastics at different temperatures from each nozzle, meaning that your printed object doesn’t have to be made of only one plastic, either.

While Stabile’s ultimate goal is to create a Multistruder that would fit all existing 3D printers, it currently only is compatible with Mendel’s Prusa i1, i2, i3 and Mendel Max models. Stabile also states that, if everything goes according to plan, the Multistruder will be open source, however “To protect my investment and the integrity of this project, Multistruder’s source files will be remain private until development is completed”, writes Stabile on his Kickstarter page.

Multistruder users will have to have some kind of technical knowledge since it requires quite a bit of assembly and fine-tuning to install. It may – or may not – require a separate Arduino board; it comes in pieces and requires assembling; depending on the hardware already in place, users might need a separate 24V power supply. Stabile says that the rewards he plans to ship after the Kickstarter campaign is successful will only ship after the Multistruder website is online, which will include instructional videos on how to successfully assemble, install, run and use the hardware.

The Multistruder Kickstarter video features iPhone cases that have been printed using several different colors with intricate designs printed within. There’s also a football-shaped Russian-doll in which a red football is printed inside a black football which is printed inside a white football. Finally, three different cars are churned out of the 3D printer which all have different colors and shapes.

The deadline to help Michael Stabile get his project on track via Kickstarter is Saturday, July 5th. Discuss Stabile’s quad extruder in the Multistruder forum thread on 3DPB.com.  Also be sure to check out the Kickstarter video below.