German high school students made a rotational 3d printer, that can print circular things. Very interesting! They presented it on Intel ISEF 2015 in Pittsburgh, PA, in May and got 2nd place. Smart guys, worth attention. @3ders.org
This looks a lot like the 3D printing version of a bolt on fifth axis for small CNC machines… Now if they can integrate this project into a cartesian printer, they may have a good start on something really interesting.
oh yes, if just put a “fourth” rotational axis on the bed, that would make it
This is interesting, in order to print on a rotational A axis, the slicer engine must incorporate a helix calculation based off of the rack and pinion gear driving the y axis. This is the same set up as treading on a lathe. Therefore in order to add a 4th axis, the machine would need to be rebuilt to look similar to a 4 axis CBC lathe were the fourth axis would be a sliding bed x axis with the rotational A axis attached. This would allow the machine to print on any locked A axis theta and therefore bring Cartesian programming into the equation. However since we are dealing with FDM printing, temperature control and thermodynamics will make this a challenge unlike solid stock cold rolled material used in subtractive manufacturing. Perhaps a liquid resin based setup with UV light would be more successful spreading the fluid on the A axis using a precision spray nozzle on the y axis extruder with a UV Light source. This would cause more fluid dynamic problems (which can be worked out) and almost eliminate thermal problems.
Very cool!
well actually, they have printed dozens of cylindric models with no problems. If freeze an Y axis, or whatever the bed is and have a rotational “bed” instead/on-it, it will be the same as on this photos, of course, firware will be slightly differenet. Actually, these guys made a firmware too
They are only using PLA plastic, which significantly reduces the durability of the parts produced. In order for the machine to manufacture production level parts, higher temperature polymers are needed.
The physical design and firmware development are the hardest parts. Producing the components in a different polymer is extremely easy.