The LIX is designed as the smallest 3D printing pen, a Kickstarter concept that M.C. Escher would have undoubtedly appreciated for the pen’s ability to allow users to break out of the confines of two dimensions.
Imagine a 3D printer reduced down to its most bare components and engineered into a pen shape and you’ve got the LIX. Powered by a USB 3.0 port connected pen barrel, colored plastic “ink” ABS or PLA filaments are melted with a hot-end nozzle much like a glue gun (ABS offers greater strength, flexibility, malleability and higher temperature resistance, while the plant-based PLA filaments are offered in a wider range of colors and levels of glossy translucency at the cost of reduced strength and flexibility). Lines can be drawn across and above any surface, the act of illustration becoming one part printing, another part gestural sculpture.
Each drawn line cools quickly to create rigid and freestanding structures, opening endless illustrative possibilities for artistic and design exploration beyond the two-dimensional, transforming the act of drawing into one combining printing with sculpture. Designed by Anton Suvorov, the portable 3D-printer-in-a-pen was conceived as a tool both for product prototyping, fashionable embellishment, or artistic exploration
The LIX pen weighs only 40 grams, and at just 6.45″ in length, users could easily brag they’ve got a whole 3D printer ready to use sitting in their shirt pocket. Those looking to get their hands on the first batch of LIX devices can help fund the project over at the LIX Kickstarter page.