Relevant for
3D printers have their own vocabulary and words for describing their various parts and functions. If you are doing maintenance or about to seek help online, it is necessary to have the right words to describe your issue or problem. We have put together a list of words with explanations, covering most parts on the printer.
Bed, Heatbed, Printbed - The commonly used term for the printing pad - a heated area of
the 3D printer where 3D objects are printed.
Flexible steel sheet - Magnetic printing-surface placed on the heatbed. Present on MK2.5/S and MK3/S
Extruder - The printing head also known as an extruder, is the part of a printer consisting of a
hotend/nozzle, hobbed pulley, idler, a nozzle fan (print-fan), hotend-fan, P.I.N.D.A.-sensor.
Hotend - This refers to the complex of metal parts found in the extruder.
Heater cartridge - The heater of the nozzle and heat block.
Thermistor - Temperature-sensor. Installed on both hotend and heatbed.
Heat block - The block that contains the Nozzle, thermistor and heater, on the hotend.
P.I.N.D.A. sensor . - Induction-sensor for auto-levelling.
Bondtech gear - This is the filament-pulleys or hobbed-pulleys on all Original Prusa MK3/S, MK2.5/S.
Filament - The term for plastic provided on a spool. It’s used throughout this handbook as
well as in the LCD menu on the printer.
FFF/FDM - Stand for Fused Filament Fabrication and Fused Deposition Manufacturing and is the general term for this method of 3D printing.
1.75 (mm) - 3D printers use two different diameters (thickness) of filament: 2.85 mm (commonly
called as 3 mm) and 1.75 mm. Worldwide, the 1.75mm version is used more, although there
is no difference in printing quality. All of our FFF-printers are equipped for 1.75mm filament.