Quote Originally Posted by jimc View Post
i have heard people say the valves arent what you think they are. not sure what that means so please enlighten me on this feature.
We are also not sure what this means. The robox head is built with needle valves. This is an important feature for the Robox as you can use two nozzles (one for the outer, 0.3mm, and one for infill, 0.8mm). If it wasn't there then there would be an issue with the set up due to stringing. The other added advantage is that you can have partially closed needle valves which gives even more control over the amount of exudate that is laid down. So the Robox head's needle valves have stopped stringing but with the added benefit of partial closes. Cel-UK's plan for this functionality is that by reducing the extrusion path it will allow for the generation of features much smaller in finer detail than is possible with a nozzle of 0.3mm; they are currently carrying out further software development to take full advantage of the partial close capabilities of their needle valves. All of this functionality is configured via the Automaker software that comes bundled with the Robox.

Having not de-constructed a Robox extrusion head ourselves we cannot comment on the exact design of the needle valves but we are not quite sure as to when a needle valve ceases to be a needle valve. I can only suggest that you watch the video on the Robox product page. Its quite a long promotional video but towards the end Chris shows an opened extrusion head so you can see the casing for the needle valve. He doesn't take the needle valve apart though.

Sorry if this does not answer your question but we are not too sure how to answer it.