The 100 Is Back – And Faster Than Ever

In March, we reported on the fully open-source DIY desktop 3D printer, The 100. At the time, the machine could print at an astonishing velocity of 400 mm/s. That’s fast enough to produce a Benchy in under six minutes – and claim the 27th spot on the #SpeedBoatRace leaderboard.

Now, in a video posted to Reddit, The 100’s creator Matthäus Szturc has upped the ante, showing the machine printing at an eye-popping 1000 mm/s with a 42 mm³/s volumetric flow rate. It sounds just as wild as it looks, with the post’s top comment reading that it is “very difficult to accept this is real-time” rather than a time-lapse.

At such a fantastical flow rate, Szturc says, cooling is “incredibly important”, revealing that he used PLA+ filament rated to 215-225°C but started at 200°C and increased it in increments to find the optimal settings.

Szturc says the current video serves as an update to showcase The 100’s design after three months of development. The design is a pre-release beta version of the machine, and is currently available to his Patreon subscribers, with the final release planned for August.

As for Benchys, Szturc still has big plans – although the 40 mm length of the model may prevent him from reaching such dizzying speeds.

“For quality Benchys, I’m limited to about 260 mm/s. Higher speeds are currently not possible since with active pressure advanced and retraction there is a lot of stress on the extruder motor,” he said, in an interview with All3DP. “For version two of the printer, I plan to do a direct drive extruder toolhead to get rid of this limitation.”

Still, the coming weeks will see Szturc off to the races again, as he begins testing Benchy prints in hopes of achieving a top 10 ranking.

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