About Voron Design
Voron Design is a little different to other 3D printer manufacturers we’ve designed extrusion systems for: they’re a hive mind community of engineers around the world who share a common design ethos. They don’t sell a product to customers; they produce designs for production-quality printers that you can assemble in your kitchen out of parts you can source online. As they put it on their website: “We build space shuttles with gardening tools so anyone can have a space shuttle of their own.”
What’s special about Revo Voron?
Revo Voron is a top choice if you’re looking for a small, lightweight HotEnd designed for motion system agility. A compact, custom-designed aluminium heatsink keeps heat creep at bay, and tapped holes accept four M3 x 0.5 bolts for rigid mounting. The heatsink is anodised with a snazzy red finish, so it fits right in with Voron’s distinct colour scheme.
Because it’s compatible with our expanding Revo ecosystem, you’re able to change nozzles cold, just using your fingers. This eliminates typical hassles you’ll find when nozzle changing with other HotEnds available: there’s no need for hot tightening cycles or custom nozzle wrenches, and you can set your machine up for different use cases in 30 seconds instead of 30 minutes – in a much less hazardous way.
Revo Voron will work with our upcoming 0.15mm Revo Nozzle, high flow variants, and Revo ObXidian for abrasive and composite filaments.
A Revo HeaterCore is at the heart of Revo Voron, enabling the HotEnd to heat up much faster than other heaterblock-style HotEnds on the market. This is designed with a positive temperature co-efficient so power decreases as it gets hotter, reducing hazards if a thermal runaway should happen.
In keeping with our open source roots, the hardware designs for the heatsink are released under the LGPLv3. You can view them right now on the E3D Help Centre.
Revo Voron is intended to work with Voron 3D printers, and used with the Voron Stealthburner in particular. Thermal performance is comparable to Revo Micro, but Revo Voron has slightly less area available for heat transfer. This is compensated for by the Voron Stealthburner's larger integrated fan.
It’s quite possible to use Revo Voron with a non-Voron 3D printer if you’d like to take advantage of a small, lightweight HotEnd with quick and easy nozzle swaps. Unlike other HotEnds in the Revo ecosystem, a standard fan isn’t included with this one, so you’ll need to make sure a fan is directed to the heatsink to prevent heat creep.
Our friend Nero 3D is also part of the Voron community and was involved in this project
The story behind Revo Voron
The Revo Voron project started off with Doc from the Voron community joking with Tim Elmore at Filastruder if he could talk to someone at E3D about building a Voron HotEnd. Doc remembers:
“Suddenly I got an email from Tim introducing me to Sanjay and asking if we could find some time to all hop on a call.”
It all began with a Discord DM
Sanjay had already noticed the innovations happening in the Voron community, particularly in mechanical design, motion systems, and firmware optimisations to enhance 3D printing speed and reliability. His messages are still in the archives of Voron’s Discord:
“I've been hanging out in the Voron Discord over the weekend, nerding out hard. They have a great group of experienced 3D printer developers, testers and good leadership, management, and organisation.”
After a positive first call between Sanjay and Doc, several key members of the Voron community were involved to make Revo Voron happen (shoutout to Badnoob, Doc, Wile.e, RussianCatFood, UberNero, and Steve Builds!)
During the design phase, Sanjay hinted at the team to include geometry compatible with a Hemera heatbreak, and to also include a round clip on the bottom of the heatsink.
This round clip turned out to be a spring clip for the Revo HeaterCore, which was undergoing top secret beta testing at the time.
Early concepts
From Voron’s Discord archives
Making Revo Voron a reality was a serious passion project for Sanjay – he loved the Voron community and they loved him, too. Now Revo Voron is available to buy all over the world, we hope we’ve produced something he’d nerd out hard over.
“Working with the E3D team has been an amazing experience. They have been so generous with their time, and their attention to engineering detail is remarkable. I’ve had the opportunity to evaluate many different HotEnds and I believe Revo is a real innovation in HotEnd technology. By reducing thermal mass and close-coupling the thermistor to the nozzle extruder, Revo can better control the heat to the material for smooth, consistent extrusion.”
Aaron Herrick, Voron Design
“Working with E3D on this was a wild joy ride. They are an incredible engineering house with an infectious passion for designing better 3D printing systems. I hope we can collaborate with them further in future.”
Maksim Zolin, Voron Design
“Working with E3D has been a phenomenal experience for all the team. Even from our first meeting, it was evident that we shared a common passion for pushing 3D printing beyond where it is today. Revo Voron has been a truly collaborative effort, blending the Voron Design team’s aesthetic and design with E3D’s expertise in filament extrusion systems. We can’t wait to see them in the wild!”
Adam Syfrett, Voron Design
“Working with Sanjay and the rest of the E3D crew was a real treat. Leveraging their experience and learning from their expertise has been an all-around incredible experience. I hope we're able to grow this relationship and put our heads together again soon.”
Chris Paltzat, Voron Design
“It’s been great working with the Voron community on this project. The Voron heatsink we’ve produced together has been a big success. We hope for this to be the first of many projects for OEMs to integrate Revo into their machines.”
Rory Yonge, Revo Lead Engineer, E3D
Revo Voron: How it’s made
Production and assembly of Revo Voron takes place in Great Britain. This includes the heatsink and the HeaterCore, which we manufacture at our headquarters near Oxford.
Design validation
Significant thermal design work was performed by both parties to optimise the heatsink geometry and fin dimensions. This created a heatsink that can dissipate heat effectively and minimise the chance of heat creep using the least area.
We ran tests for retraction and jam potential by 3D printing PLA cylinders in a heated chamber, and increasing the chamber temperature until a jam occurred. We also ran a closed beta test among the Voron community to allow final optimisations before mass production began, so we’d be confident our production units would be top quality.
Thermal simulation to optimise fin dimensions (Image credit: Badnoob of Voron)
To make a quality product, you need to break it a bunch of times (Video credit: Badnoob of Voron)
Mass production: Turning and milling
Imagine a milling machine getting freaky with a lathe – this describes the turning and milling process we use to manufacture each Revo Voron.
We use a combination of manual and CNC lathes for prototyping, but every production unit is produced using Swiss-style CNC sliding head lathes. Much like your 3D printer, these run GCODE, and each unit is produced using the same proven program. Automating the process in this way means we can churn out units at volume with little human intervention.
Using these lathes is great because every cut is accurate to fractions of microns – many times less than the width of a human hair – leaving very little room for deviation between each unit. This means each Revo Voron doesn’t just look the same; they have the same thermal performance as well.
The heatsink’s snazzy red colour is a decorative oxide finish that’s fully integrated with the underlying aluminium substrate. Anodising has advantages over other cosmetic finishes such as coating or plating as it makes the final product resistant to chipping or peeling.
Some insights into our manufacturing capabilities
Revo Voron: Available to buy now!
Where to buy
Revo Voron ships today. Buying outside the UK? Avoid additional charges and lead times by ordering from your local E3D Reseller.
Want to research before buying? Technical documentation for Revo Voron is already available on the E3D Help Centre.
If you have further questions, we’re available to chat on Discord or social media. Don’t forget to follow our blog for the latest E3D news and updates!