looking back at the Olsson Block

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The Olsson block is a heater block where swapping nozzles can be done in under a minute. By now adopted in the Ultimaker 2+, this concept finds its roots in our community.

It has been a while since, what we now know as, 'the Olsson block' surfaced from the ingenious mind of Anders Olsson. It all started with the launch of the Ultimaker 2, and Anders found himself in need of an easier to replace nozzle from his print head. Anders is a research engineer working on neutron particle experiments. He started using an Ultimaker 2 to create sample mounts and holders specifically designed for use during these tests, which were difficult to produce through more traditional means.

Because neutrons can be dangerous to people and machinery the neutron-absorbing material boron carbide, an extremely hard ceramic that is also used in tanks and bulletproof vests, is used to shield them from the experimental process. But since boron carbide is so hard, it’s also extremely difficult to craft complicated objects with. Feeding this through the nozzle quickly wore it down. Hence, a need to replace them easily.

When Anders shared his findings with our community, it was only a short matter of time before it gained momentum and several users stepped forward willing to test his modification.

At Ultimaker we sat down with Anders and together we made sure we could offer this to our users world wide.

At the time, we also made a video story about Anders Olsson. Check out this story if you want to know all about it.

If you want to read up the original thread, you can find it here.

By default it is already installed in the Ultimaker 2+. If you have an Ultimaker 2 running, it is definitely worth to check out this upgrade for yourself. The forums are loaded with testimonials