Slice Copperhead Hotend

Copperhead is a new hotend developed by the American company Slice Engineering, recognized as the creators of the acclaimed Mosquito hotend.

It is an all-metal hotend of Open Source design (CC-BY-SA 4.0) and manufactured entirely in the United States, which combines ease of use with exceptional performance.

Video 1: Copperhead promotional video. Source. Sliceengineering.com

Bimetal Heat Break

 Copperhead incorporates the innovative bimetal Heat Break technology developed by Slice Engineering for the Mosquito hotend.

Image 1: Structure of Slice Engineering's bimetal heat break. Source: Sliceengineering.com

This advanced Heat Break combines a low-wall thickness inner tube made of surgical stainless steel with two copper alloy outer elements.

Image 2: Comparison of Copperhead and Mosquito Heat Break thickness against others on the market. Source:Sliceengineering.com

Unlike the traditional all-metal Heat Break, made exclusively of stainless steel, the copper exterior of the bimetal design favours the heating of the hot zone and dissipates excess heat from the cold zone, thus achieving a better differentiation between the two zones. Thanks to this design, heat transfer from the hot to the cold zone is greatly reduced compared to traditional all-metal heat breaks. This means that there is hardly any transition zone, critically minimising the likelihood of Heat Creep when using materials with low softening temperatures such as PLA, a problem that is common with all-metal Heat Breaks.

Add to this the excellent internal machining which results in a roughness less than 50 um, and you have one of the best all-metal hotends for jamming performance.

Video 2: Thermography of the Copperhead during heating. Source: Sliceengineering.com

High-temperature heating block

The other key element of the Copperhead is its advanced heating block, which also inherits some of the innovations of the Mosquito hotend.

Copperhead incorporates a heating block made of high quality copper coated with a thin layer of nickel. While copper is the ideal material for high temperature applications due to its excellent thermal conductivity and high resistance to temperatures of up to 550°C, surface nickel plating protects it from corrosion and gives it non-stick properties that prevent molten plastic from sticking to its surface, while reducing heat loss through radiation.

Image 3: Copperhead heating block. Source: Sliceengineering.com

However, innovation is not limited to the selection of materials. Its striking design is not only due to aesthetic issues, but has been designed to facilitate tasks such as changing nozzles. The smaller width of the front area allows the block to be held in this area with a key while the nozzle is being changed. This protects the thermistor and heater block connections from being accidentally damaged while holding the block.

Image 4: Heating block clamping area. Source: Sliceengineering.com

Slice Engineering has developed vanadium nozzles that are compatible with the Hotend Slice Mosquito and the Hotend Slice Copperhead. These nozzles have an M6 x 1 thread and an overall length of 12.5mm, making them fully compatible with E3D's V6 system components and most RepRap-type components.

Vesatility and compatibility

Copperhead is available in three versions:

• Copperhead with heatsink: A version with a high performance aluminum heatsink compatible with Bondtech's DDX extruder. This version also allows you to adjust the length of the hotend to more easily adapt it to any printer. This option includes heatsink, bimetal heat break and heater block.

Image 5: Slice Copperhead with heatsink. Source: filament2print.com

• Copperhead Groove Heatsink: A version with a high performance aluminum heatsink and Groove mount compatible with some of the most popular extruders such as the Bondtech BMG, QR and E3D Titan, as well as any printer that supports this mount type. This version also allows the hotend length to be adjusted to more easily fit any printer. This option includes heatsink, bimetal Heat Break and heating block.

Image 5: Slice Copperhead with Groove sink. Source: filament2print.com

• Copperhead RepRap 1.75: A heatless version with RepRap 1.75 type heat break, compatible with the Titan Aero extruder, the Artillery Sidewinder X1 extruder (requires modification of the fan support), as well as the Prusa Mk3s, Mk3, Mk2s and Mk2 printers. This version includes bimetal Heat Break and heating block.

Image 6: Copperhead RepRap 1.75  Source: filament2print.com

It is also possible to purchase the heatsink, the heat break and the heating block separately.

In addition, there are versions with Heat Break compatible with RepRap 2.85, Mk8 and Mk10 heatsinks and extruders, as well as heatsinks with the same mounting as the Mosquito hotend. If you are interested in any of these versions you can contact us directly to check availability.

Image 7: Copperhead system. Source: Sliceengineering.com

In addition to the many options available, both the heating block and the 1.75 Heat Break RepRap integrate seamlessly with all components of the RepRap system, including all components of the E3D V6 system. This allows both E3D and Olsson Ruby nozzles to be used.

 The Coperhead heater block supports both 3mm diameter and 15mm long thermistors, as well as thermistors with M3 threads. All this makes it one of the most compatible hotends on the market. Although for maximum performance we recommend using the 50W cartridge heater and the Slice Engineering high temperature thermistor.

Image 8: Thermistors 3x15 mm and with M3 thread compatible with Copperhead. Source: E3D-online.com/aliexpress.com

With its high compatibility and excellent thermal performance capable of continuous printing with temperatures up to 450°C, Copperhead is the perfect hotend for users who want to easily upgrade their printers to be able to print high temperature materials and improve quality and performance with basic materials.

Note:
The noozle, fan, thermistor and cartridge heater are not included.