Hardware Glossary

Links to various hardware of the printer and what they do.

The extruder is what pushes and pulls the filament through the hot nozzle. Read more about it here:

Extruder

The hotend is the hardware that generates heat to melt the plastic filament and output it through the nozzle which has a fixed diameter. Read more about it here:

Hotend & Nozzle

On the Prusa, the print surface is magnetically coupled to the print bed, which moves along the Y-axis. Read more about it here:

Print Surface, Bed & Y Axis

Prusa's PINDA inductive probe sets the Z minimum coordinates of the printer as well as the z-offset. Read more about it here:

PINDA Inductive Probe

The toolhead that comprises of the extruder and hotend assembly, rides along the X-axis gantry. Read more about it here:

X-Axis Gantry

The Z-axis stage is what moves the X-Axis and Gantry up and down. Read more about it here:

Z-Axis Stage