Micro-Swiss is quickly becoming a household name in 3D Printing. With home consumer 3D Printing skyrocketing in popularity over the last 5 years there are many companies offering 3D Printer Parts and Upgrade Components.
Let’s face facts, about 75% of 3D Printing Parts are made in China. With about 50% of them being cheap knockoffs and clones from well-engineered designs.
Aside from mainboards and filament there is a high demand for hotend components. E3D-Online has been a dominant contender in this market space but what about companies in the US? Can a US-based company be successful in this space and offer competitive products?
Enter Micro-Swiss LLC located in Ramsey, Minnesota USA.
Their Story
Micro-Swiss LLC is a family-owned and operated business, formed by brothers Alex, Vitaliy, and Nikolay. After four years of working in machine shops, the three brothers bought their first machine which was a Swiss Style sliding headstock CNC Lathe.
Hence the name “Swiss” was influential when forming the company name Micro-Swiss. This was at a time when consumer 3d printing was becoming more mainstream and affordable.
“We always had this vision to start a company of our own.” says Alex from Micro-Swiss
Their first product was an MK8-style nozzle upgrade.
They wanted to focus on manufacturing an improved nozzle that is more wear resistant than the standard brass nozzles offered. They partnered with a local plating company in Minnesota and perfected a nickel composite coating. This “TwinClad XT” coating drastically increases the life of the nozzle and its non-stick properties help to keep it clean (and clog-free) longer.
TwinClad XT Coating
TwinClad XT is a proprietary formulation that was introduced to achieve a hard electroless nickel coating with a low coefficient of friction. Coming from a machining background the brothers of Micro-Swiss chose this coating as a perfect application for 3D Printing.
They have combined precision machining with a low coefficient of friction coating to provide a product that performs and outlasts its rivals.
This totally justifies the price of the products as they last longer, perform better, and produce quality prints.
“After releasing plated nozzles, we got a lot of positive feedback from customers” said Alex from Micro-Swiss.
Enter the Market
As the MK8 nozzle received great feedback, Micro-Swiss became more and more involved with 3D Printing. Their first 3D Printer, a FlashForge Creator Pro, inspired them to improve upon the PTFE-lined MK10 Hotend and they eventually came up with an all-metal version. This was the birth of their most popular product the MK10 All-Metal Hotend Kit.
As the products gained a reputation for quality and performance the three brothers moved into a larger facility. They bought more CNC Machines and brought on more staff to start manufacturing high-quality 3D Printer upgrades.
“We really enjoy what we do and the 3D printing community has been amazing.” says Alex at Micro-Swiss.
They now have a full product line of products and they are compatible with most 3D Printer models. Their designs feature proprietary technology with special features that improve functionality over the industry standard.
What’s next for Micro-Swiss.
The future is bright for Micro-Swiss LLC, they are currently developing a new universal extruder and hotend. They are also looking to partner up with more 3D printer manufacturers to supply OEM high quality nozzles.
Micro-Swiss has already partnered with Raise3D, re:3D and Flexion supplying them with US made nozzles and other hotend components.
Conclusion
I have personally used a range of the Micro-Swiss products and I have been very impressed with their performance.
In fact, the MicroSwiss dual-gear extruder is exactly what I’m using in my Ender 3 V2 Hurricane build.
The team at Micro-Swiss offers incredible support and have great technical knowledge of 3D Printing issues.
You can find their products on Amazon.com or through their online store.
So, if you have been thinking about trying a more expensive product rest easy that you’ll get your money’s worth with Micro-Swiss’s American made high quality options.
Update
Micro-Swiss has increased their product line with some amazing new designs. One of them is the new All Metal Hotend Kit for CR-10 Printers!
They also offer a Flexible Friendly Hotend Kit that can run up to 300°C for the CR-10 3D Printers so definitely check it out.
Also new is the All Metal Hotend with SLOTTED Cooling Block for Zortrax M200 3D Printer.
