Jan.16, 2014
Instead of stepper motor based 3D printer, Paju-Si, South Korea based Stellamove has developed a DC motor powered 3D printer equipped with position feedback control system.
DC motor is cheap, powerful and light weight and often used in RC planes and drones. The reason RAPY employs DC motor is because of its high dynamic response and high energy efficiency.
The heart of the RAPY system is a PUMP board that enables position feedback control to allow RAPY to move precisely and fast. RAPY also features auto leveling, meaning RAPY automatically adjusts vertical position of the extruder by itself and it takes approximately seven seconds after beginning of each printing process, says the creator.
Two dimensional plotting on a flat and rigid surface is another use of RAPY. The speed of RAPY's plotting is almost identical to that of its three dimensional printing on a single layer. A use for this will be circuit board printing for electric engineers.
In addition, RAPY's Smart Bed Plate is equipped magnets, hence the upper plate snaps off easily from the bottom base.
Specifications:
The fully assembled RAPY is offered on Kickstarter starting at $699 (tax & shipping not included), if you are first in line for main production delivery. The estimated delivery time is in July 2014.
Posted in 3D Printers
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Dude thats a great idea, 2d printers can achieve a great resolution with dc motors and ive been thinking why cant the same dc motors be used on the 3d printers just like they are used on the 2d ones... A few ppl may think that this has no gain to offer, and i can tell you, yes it does offer gain. See, the dc motor is much quieter than the stepper, dc motors can be easily found and also are a LOT cheaper, and with a lot i really mean it. It is lighter and its in most of the cases, they wont apply that much ressonance in the rest of the machine (as the friend upper in the comments said... With less ressonance, one BIG problem of a lot of 3d printers is over, couse the strenght applied in the machine makes the things get slacky and over time it becomes a big problem... Thxx for reading it all! XD
PISSUkolla wrote at 8/27/2014 4:03:28 PM:
WOW amazing ! Rock DC motors ......
engineer90 wrote at 1/20/2014 2:33:53 PM:
you may see one encoder and two motors per axis, and also may see synchronous rod for both. so just one encoder is enough for one axis. And DC motor is not so expensive against substitute part like pully and housing, but adds very powerful and stable movement.
jd90 wrote at 1/17/2014 1:13:02 AM:
I only see one encoder per axis. Many 3D printers use two motors per axis. All Mendel-based designs do so on the Z. Ben, feedback might be a benefit. Anyone that's had to fight motor skips would understand such frustration. Any missed step can't be compensated for without some feedback. Not having step detents show up in the finish might be a benefit. One clear benefit is that DC motors are quieter, sometimes much quieter, and they don't impose the same resonance on the mechanism as steppers do.
Bri wrote at 1/16/2014 8:03:52 PM:
Wonder how they do this with DC, maybe a linear encoder wheel? Definitely the future though, I would love to have a 3D printer that made almost zero noise.
Ben wrote at 1/16/2014 5:34:52 PM:
Interesting project but it seems to offer no gains. Doubling the motors to replace a motor that is 2x cost is more part failure and no cost savings.