Rex Vapor is About to Beautify the E-Cigarette Market with 3D Printed Vaporizers

Cigarette smoking has finally met its match. Over the past few years a movement has been making its way throughout the United States, much of Europe, and many other locations throughout the world. ‘Vaping’ is the term, and helping thousands of people quit smoking is its promise. For years, there have been electronic cigarettes on the market, many of which have to some extent been successful in helping individuals quit the deadly habit of smoking tobacco. However, it wasn’t until individuals and companies started to get creative that the vaping movement really took off.

Today there are virtually endless flavors of e-liquid that smokers can purchase with various level of nicotine. This allows for variety as well as a means for smokers to gradually reduce nicotine levels and completely quit smoking altogether. While vaping has really been catching on, Meredith Agens, a co-founder of Rex Vapor, saw a small problem with the current state of affairs within the industry.

The 3D Printed Quartz Model

“While it’s easily to promote vaping as a harm reduction method from a health standpoint, an oddly frequent objection was that vaporizers were ugly, clunky, or looked more like a medical device than a fashion statement,” Agens tells 3DPrint.com. “I’d gotten into hobby 3D printing by then, and I realized that I could combine my interests to eliminate this objection and help make vaping the only rational choice for nicotine delivery, as it should be.”

Agens’ interest in vaping begun when her brother, a long time smoker, suffered from a collapsed lung three years ago. Agens showed up at the hospital with a vase of flowers and a vaporizer. Luckily her brother took the hint, and since then the two have become quite the advocates for vaping.

Agens decided to use her knowledge of 3D printing to bring to market new vaporizers which not only function well but are also aesthetically pleasing.

“Once I’ve decided on what look I’m going for, designs start out as pencil-and-paper drawings, from which I map out a workflow of how I’ll 3D model them,” Agens tells us. “I mostly use Blender for modeling as it’s how I learned animation back in 2011, but I’ll supplement with other software if it’s ideal for what I’m trying to make. We’ve experimented with about half a dozen printers, and currently use an EOS printer. We plan on getting one in-house as soon as possible.”

Currently Rex Vapor is 3D printing three separate models: the Feng, Quartz, and Victoria. It takes approximately one hour to 3D print four of the Victoria or Quartz vaporizers, or three of the Feng devices. They are 3D printed in a high tensile polyamide powder, and Agens says that they are 100% safe to use.

“Everyone at Rex has gone through a lot to ensure that our vaporizers are safe, not just as an original product but as vaporizers in general,” she tells us. “I personally don’t consider any plastic food-safe, so there are a number of machines involved beyond printers – CNC machines, extruders, and the like – to make a vaporizer in which the only materials the internal components touch are glass and stainless steel. Beyond that, we’ve given the microprocessors within [the vaporizers] locking functions, temperature monitoring, and automatic shutoff in cases of short circuit, low voltage, or reverse polarity.”

Rex Vapor will officially launch their website and Indiegogo campaign on June 1st. You can signup to be notified of the Indiegogo launch via the Rex Vapor website. What do you think about these unique vaporizers? Would you consider using one of them yourself? Discuss in the Rex Vapor forum thread on 3DPB.com.