@Ryan_Carlyle thanks for clarification. This one doesn’t look like US based.
@Przemyslaw_Jakubczak damn! a second one! wow now I really wonder if a rack and pinion might be as good or better than belts. Belts are no doubt lighter.
@Ted_Huntington depends what you want to achieve, but i would say ballscrews with dc motors and encoders on linear rails will win in my book any time over the rack and pinion.
@Cristian_Nicola @Ted_Huntington For small to medium machines that need to be rigid, ball screws are pretty awesome. When you go up to big sizes (like >1 meter) you run into issues with both screw cost and screw whipping, and rack&pinion kinda starts to make sense.
I don’t see much point in rack&pinion for small printers unless you’re trying to minimize parts-count on a cheapo consumer printer like a Tiko… then you can use inexpensive plastic parts or even mold the rack directly into a part.