Kind of excited about a project that I’m going to be helping with soon here local to me. As a proud member of the anti-anti-cartesian league, I’ve been invited to join the team for millebot (http://www.millebot.com) – This is my disclosure; I have been offered a job with them, I have not taken it, but the idea is exciting to me so I’m sharing now that I’m allowed to do so.
They’re using cargo containers as the basis for a build envelope which is about the size of a small car. It’s the first time I’ve seen someone do a gantry like this as well, where instead of moving the bed under a crane gantry, they move the whole crane gantry. It ends up allowing them to use most of the space of the cargo container, be able to forklift the print out once done, etc.
The thing is, tolerances for these things are actually pretty damn tight, because they have to be stacked, they have to be perfectly square.
If anyone is familiar with “PODS”, as well - I think the idea behind this is that you can rent the whole platform for a project, and then return it once done. They’ll be officially unveiling at the Orlando, FL Makerfaire on October 22nd and 23rd.
We’re still working out how to do large amounts of plastic extrusion – I’ve reached out to the SeeMeCNC crew to see if they’d be willing to collaborate on the pellet extruder for this.
Sadly, it’s not open source. But being something that is rentable does put it within the reach of everyday makers.
@JOHN_YN No idea on tolerances yet. 3D printing is probably the first use case because of low mass, low inertia, and working material not causing a lot of deflection, there are plans for router heads. All closed-loop, nothing open loop here. Can’t have a 3 week long print fail because of a motor skip.
I’m hoping that it starts producing body panels for cars – there are use cases for a printer this big, many of them I don’t even know about yet because I’ve never thought this big.
Somebody posted a XZY-serial crane gantry design like this (albeit a regular-size printer) here on G+ a few months ago. Can’t find the post though.
It’s generally not done because dynamically side-loading a cantilever in X or Y is basically a death sentence for ringing unless you build the crane ludicrously strong. (Which looks like what Mille may be doing here.) Driving the ZY gantry from both sides (like a portal mill) is so vastly superior that it’s rare for engineers to go with this approach.
@Ryan_Carlyle I said the same thing initially. It’s not like this needed a reduction in parts or anything. Many of your observations mirror my own concerns when I first saw the project.
That little hexagonal shield hides a huge brace that spans a good section of the overhang.
@ThantiK The one big benefit I can see is that the one-sided design is tolerant to varying container dimensions. They can bolt it onto pretty much anything.
@Ryan_Carlyle , good observation. Right now they’ve got it mounted to a concrete wall. When it’s done for the day, the thing can pack nicely into the corner of the shop without getting in the way of anything.
Mille is designed to be and will be mounted to the inside of a shipping container with side opening doors. We at Millebot just received the container and are planning installation of the gantry this week in preparation for Make Faire Orlando. In the meantime here is short video of the current setup in action missing/deleted image from Google+
There are actually new elements when it comes to the Mille. First off the multi head tool with be able to scan, print and mill. The unique design mounted to the shipping container will make it deliverable to anywhere in the world and the material we are using a proprietary that hardens as it prints and is strong than concrete and/or brick.
And that’s just to name a few of the design feature that separate Mille from other 3D printers.
Feel free to contact us at info@millebot.com if you have specific questions… we would be happy to answer them
