A new approach to print head movement
Proof of concept for linear motor positioning in an Ultimaker 3D printer
Aaron Alkemade (TU Delft - Mechanical Engineering)
Oscar van de Ven – Mentor (Ultimaker)
Jo Spronck – Mentor (TU Delft - Mechatronic Systems Design)
Niranjan Saikumar – Graduation committee member (TU Delft - Mechatronic Systems Design)
John van den Dobbelsteen – Graduation committee member (TU Delft - Medical Instruments & Bio-Inspired Technology)
More Info
expand_more
Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.
Abstract
To push the performance of the next generation Ultimaker 3D printers further, a new positioning system is required to improve the printing speed, print accuracy and print repeatability. The expectation is that a linear motor positioning system will perform significantly better than a conventional belt driven system. For this reason, the aim of this MSc thesis is to demonstrate the feasibility of a low-cost linear motor positioning system for use in a 3D printer.
A single axis experimental set-up is realized to evaluate the performance of the positioning system using different linear motors, sensors, guides and controllers. Using a single sided ironless linear motor, Hall effect encoder, linear ball bearing and an open-source controller, a positioning system is realized that can reach a speed of 3.7 m/s, an accuracy of 14 µm and a repeatability of 3 µm. A 2DOF system using these components can be realized with an overall cost of € 854.