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Titanium 3D Printed Fountain Pen & Nib


Pjotr Dumat

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Dear FPN members,

 

After 3 years of research, experiments and a little trial and error, I was able to reveal my next titanium, 3D printed fountain pen, the Spica Virginis. It resembles a futuristic impression of a wheat spike. It is named after the brightest star in the constellation Virgo, where the virgin holds a bundle of spikes. Most parts are 3D printed, including its fully functional nib and pen case.

 

http://pjotrpens.com/downloads/press/tumb/Pjotr_SpicaVirginis_WhiteBG_690.jpg

 

http://pjotrpens.com/sites/pjotrpens.com/files/downloads/press/tumb/Pjotr_SpicaVirginis_Side2_690w.jpg

 

Since my first 3D printed titanium fountain pen in January of 2013 I like to disrupt how fountain pens are made. Instead of relying on proven technology, I started 3D printing fountain pens and now I am also 3D printing nibs, also in titanium. The results stimulated me to convert my effort into a patent application.

Soon more products will be made by 3D printing because of its capability to generate complex 3D shapes in plastics, metals (including titanium, gold and platinum alloys) and (technical) ceramics . Even more wherever combined with the latest software for designers to take full advantage of this ‘design freedom’.

 

http://pjotrpens.com/downloads/press/tumb/Pjotr_SpicaVirginis_wBox_690.jpg

I am not telling you that 3D printing is about to replace all conventional manufacturing solutions. It won’t. 3D printing is just an complementary approach to manufacturing. In some cases turning is the best approach, in other cases 3D printing etc. In many cases a mix of both.

Some say ‘design freedom’ comes with no design costs. Nope. Complex shapes, in particular wherever complex in three dimensions, do not come overnight. And wherever series are small, there are only a few pieces to carry such costs. Moreover, printing metal parts is a time consuming thing (days instead of hours). So with machines of over half a million, there are significant expenses involved.
Still, 3D printing holds a tremendous potential.

 

Below is the machine that 3D printed the titanium parts: a 3D Systems ProX300 .

http://pjotrpens.com/downloads/press/tumb/3DSystems_ProX300_LR.jpg

 

Those of you who like to see a little more I invite to visit my website: http://pjotrpens.com .

Edited by Pjotr Dumat

Pjotr by Rein van der Mast



Creator of the first (titanium) 3D printed fountain pen in the world and nib (patent pending)



http://pjotrpens.com/downloads/Facebook_Pjotr_FPNsig.png

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I personally don't particularly like the design, I see a lot of potential in this. The price...wow. 2.5k€ is no joke - competes with amazing hand made pieces. This must be to cover the costs of starting up. Are there any writing samples available? Considering you're already selling the pen...

 

Good luck with your business!

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I had seen last week this pen advertised in the website of La Couronne du Comte, and immediately caught my attention, since it embraces three of my passions: I) I teach Latin for a living, so any news of novelties (and really exclusive, not only for its price tag) with a Latin name is brought to my classes and commented, I ask my students why modern companies (state-of-the-art for that matter) so often use Latin names for their top-level products, as well as classic mythology characters; II) one of my passions is astronomy, so any pen given an alpha star name means something to me; and III) the 3D revolution is here to stay, so welcome you pioneers, leading-edge techniques and innovations in general!

 

It is true that a full-titanium CNC pen, including nib (made by Bock, of course) is available for merely the 10% of this Spica Virginis; in some cases, such as Tactile Turn´s Gist, you can even choose the material for the cap finial or the gripping section, and still within that 10%. But it is also true that any item has its customer. And the same for that amazing case... having in mind that we pen users (I do not mean a dry pen collector, that who collects just for the sake of it) usually do not care much for the cases, the most simple cardboard or the most expensive hand-made hardwood box, since no case can accept ink and write.

 

So congratulations again, and good luck to both the maker and the buyer (hopefully the user too!), and please post more close-up pictures of such a uniquely latticed writing instrument, and include a number of writing tests, PLEASE!

 

plumista

Edited by plumista
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It's a fantastic-looking thing: sort of a Renaissance prince's instrument pulled out of a wormhole from the future.

 

It's almost churlish to ask how does it write, but how does it write?

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The 3d printer used cost aroun 1 million dollars... printing metals is still not cheap... I guess the designer is using the services of a service bureau and you can imagine they will charge heftly.

 

Having said so, the pen looks amazing and it is certainly a window on the near term future of production of EDCs.

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The aesthetic is awesome, yet it looks uncomfortable to hold. Is it just me?

KEEP CALM AND BOOGIE ON!

 

SILENCE IS GOLDEN, BUT DUCT TAPE IS SILVER.

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Incredible looking pen! Wish you much success!

PAKMAN

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Thank you all for your input.

 

Spica Virginis

Latin ... I had this design. It resembles a spike of wheat. And since 3D printing is already been done in space (by NASA), I started to look for a name there. And there is was, Spica, the brightest star in Virgo !

 

Comfort

Uncomfortable to hold ? I am using the Spica Virginis on a daily basis. It is really comfortable to hold for a long time, for two reasons.

  1. The material is titanium, so the pen weights only a little over 30 grams.
  2. The surface finish ensures the pens does not slip away easily.

Costs related to design

Yes, metal printers are expensive (in this case 3D Systems ProX300). Please note that there will be only 100 pieces of this pen made. So these 100 pieces should carry all design related costs as well. And they are significant in 3D, wherever complex smooth structures are included. This is often overlooked by people telling design comes with no costs in case of 3D printing.

 

Patent application

The potential of 3D printing (AKA additive manufacturing) related to fountain pens and nibs is huge ! So after years of (privately funded) research (I had my first 3D prints made in 1996 and began looking for ways to print fountain pens in 2010 already) I put down what I have found in a patent application of about 30 pages. Only a few elements of it are in the Spica Virginis. Now looking at flex nibs and ceramic nibs.

 

Writing tetst

Writing tests are very useful to have the quality of 3D printed nibs independently confirmed. Working on that !

 

Thank you,

Edited by Pjotr Dumat

Pjotr by Rein van der Mast



Creator of the first (titanium) 3D printed fountain pen in the world and nib (patent pending)



http://pjotrpens.com/downloads/Facebook_Pjotr_FPNsig.png

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It strikes me that further consideration should be made of the idea of combining the unique aspects of 3D printing with lower cost conventional production parts to produce as an interim until the price of printers drop a product that is less expensive. Yes, it is a beautiful pen and yes it is nice to be one of the first to produce a pen in this manner, but it would be nice to be able to buy one at a significantly lower price point.

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Interesting but exceptionally expensive! You are competing with limited edition fountain pens from well established brands at that price range.

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  • 5 weeks later...

Creating an object virtually and digitally enables its designer to test it before it is made physically, saving time and costs.

So recently I put my 3D printed titanium nib (patent pending) into Inspire 2017 of Altair and ran this simple test.

Below you can see areas with tension (orange) and compression (green). Slight modifications in the nib’s design will have different results, enabling the designer to modify the nibs ‘flex’ in detail.

 

http://pjotrpens.com/downloads/press/Inspire2.gif

Edited by Pjotr Dumat

Pjotr by Rein van der Mast



Creator of the first (titanium) 3D printed fountain pen in the world and nib (patent pending)



http://pjotrpens.com/downloads/Facebook_Pjotr_FPNsig.png

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Creating an object virtually and digitally enables its designer to test it before it is made physically, saving time and costs.

So recently I put my 3D printed titanium nib (patent pending) into Inspire 2017 of Altair and ran this simple test.

Below you can see areas with tension (orange) and compression (green). Slight modifications in the nib’s design will have different results, enabling the designer to modify the nibs ‘flex’ in detail.

 

http://pjotrpens.com/downloads/press/Inspire2.gif

 

Woah that's marvelous, you should work on doing a 3D feed that can supply an adequate amount of ink for flex writing! <3

Currently Inked = Pilot Custom 823 - 14Kt Gold 'M' Nib -- Visconti Kakadu LE #100/100 - 18Kt Gold 'M' Nib -- Visconti Homo Sapiens London Fog LE #785/888 - 23Kt Pd "1.3mm Stub" Nib -- Pelikan 100N Transitional - 14Kt Gold 'OF' Nib -- Pelikan 400 - 14Kt Gold 'KF' Nib (All Inked with Pelikan 4001 Blue-Black) -- Pelikan M200 West Germany - SS 'OBB' Nib

 
 
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  • 2 weeks later...

Sure, looks cool now but can you imagine how filthy it will look with dirt and dust and lint and other detritus collected in all those little nooks and crannies? There's a reason pens (for the most part) have smooth bodies.

It's hard work to tell which is Old Harry when everybody's got boots on.

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Sure, looks cool now but can you imagine how filthy it will look with dirt and dust and lint and other detritus collected in all those little nooks and crannies? There's a reason pens (for the most part) have smooth bodies.

Good point but some pens do have elaborate bodies. In those cases they are regarded as a form of art (despite difficulties with keeping them clean etc). Whether the term art can be applied to 3D printed pens as opposed to hand crafted pens is debatable.

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If you like to see a prototype and you happen to be in NL, visit La Couronne du Comte in Tilburg.

 

http://pjotrpens.com/downloads/press/tumb/LCDC_W670.jpg

Pjotr by Rein van der Mast



Creator of the first (titanium) 3D printed fountain pen in the world and nib (patent pending)



http://pjotrpens.com/downloads/Facebook_Pjotr_FPNsig.png

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The concept of 3D printed metal nibs is what I find extremely interesting. I would like to see photos of the nib and feed alone.

All these moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.

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  • 1 year later...

What is the surface finish like?

Most 3D printers that I have seen, due to the resolution in the indexing, have a surface that is not smooth and requires significant finishing to improve.

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