Deltaprintr Uses Six Arms for Quicker, Cheaper 3D Printing
By Tom's Guide / Kevin Ohannessian
December 12, 2013 12:48 PM
A typical 3D printer has a printhead that moves back and forth, and up and down, spending a lot of time …
A typical 3D printer has a printhead that moves back and
forth, and up and down, spending a lot of time moving through empty
space that will remain untouched.
A new project on Kickstarter called Deltaprintr,
launched by a group of college undergrads, takes a different approach.
Most 3D printers have a printhead (which extrudes the hot plastic)
mounted on a rod that it slides back and forth on. The Deltaprintr's
single printhead, instead is held in place by six long mechanical arms
that together direct the printhead precisely over the object it is
printing. By moving the printhead only over territory where something
will actually be printed, the process goes more quickly. The arms are
mounted to, and move up and down on, aluminum posts to create 3D objects
in an open space, rather than the usual enclosed box that most 3D
printers use.
MORE: 5 Coolest 3D Printers of Maker Faire 2013
Shai Schechter, one of the creators of the Deltaprintr and a student at SUNY Purchase, said that the group can make the device for less than $500 by using cheaper materials, including a simpler printhead, fishing line to move the arms instead of the typical belts used in other 3D printers, and fewer total parts compared with those of other 3D printers. Schechter also claims that this simplified design should result in easier and quicker assembly for those who purchase the printer as a kit.
The early-bird special for the Deltaprintr kit had been $425 and rose in price as contributions came in and each reward tier sold out. Currently, you can get an early-bird special for an assembled Deltaprintr for $655. The creators say that because they are all undergrads, it was important to them to make a printer that was affordable for other students. While a handful of other printers, such as DeltaMaker, have used a similar configuration with six arms, few have been this inexpensive and simplified for easy assembly.
The Deltaprintr also comes with a calibration probe attached to the printhead that allows for automatic adjustments. The probe measures how level the printer is and then automatically adjusts the design of the object to make sure that it is printed correctly, without the user having to manually change the design or adjust the printer bed. Like many other consumer 3D printers, the Deltaprintr uses standard 1.75mm PLA (polylactic acid, and organic plastic) filament to print at a resolution of 100 microns.
MORE: Best 3D Printers 2013
The Deltaprintr's use of an open space defined only by tall aluminum posts, instead of an enclosed box, allows for larger objects than many other printers can manage. It currently supports cylinders up to 10 inches in diameter and 12 inches high, whereas other 3D printers often can't print objects that large because the print box that the printhead moves in is too small: MakerBot's Replicator 2 can print objects up to 6 inches by 6 inches by 11 inches, for instance, and the new Solidoodle 4 can print objects up to 8 inches by 8 inches by 8 inches.
But those limitations won't last forever: After the it Kickstarter campaign ends, Deltaprintr's creators promise to sell extensions to the aluminum beams, allowing you to build objects even taller than the original 12 inches. They will sell extensions of different heights, allowing users to get just as much build space as they want or need for a specific project.
MORE: 5 Coolest 3D Printers of Maker Faire 2013
Shai Schechter, one of the creators of the Deltaprintr and a student at SUNY Purchase, said that the group can make the device for less than $500 by using cheaper materials, including a simpler printhead, fishing line to move the arms instead of the typical belts used in other 3D printers, and fewer total parts compared with those of other 3D printers. Schechter also claims that this simplified design should result in easier and quicker assembly for those who purchase the printer as a kit.
The early-bird special for the Deltaprintr kit had been $425 and rose in price as contributions came in and each reward tier sold out. Currently, you can get an early-bird special for an assembled Deltaprintr for $655. The creators say that because they are all undergrads, it was important to them to make a printer that was affordable for other students. While a handful of other printers, such as DeltaMaker, have used a similar configuration with six arms, few have been this inexpensive and simplified for easy assembly.
The Deltaprintr also comes with a calibration probe attached to the printhead that allows for automatic adjustments. The probe measures how level the printer is and then automatically adjusts the design of the object to make sure that it is printed correctly, without the user having to manually change the design or adjust the printer bed. Like many other consumer 3D printers, the Deltaprintr uses standard 1.75mm PLA (polylactic acid, and organic plastic) filament to print at a resolution of 100 microns.
MORE: Best 3D Printers 2013
The Deltaprintr's use of an open space defined only by tall aluminum posts, instead of an enclosed box, allows for larger objects than many other printers can manage. It currently supports cylinders up to 10 inches in diameter and 12 inches high, whereas other 3D printers often can't print objects that large because the print box that the printhead moves in is too small: MakerBot's Replicator 2 can print objects up to 6 inches by 6 inches by 11 inches, for instance, and the new Solidoodle 4 can print objects up to 8 inches by 8 inches by 8 inches.
But those limitations won't last forever: After the it Kickstarter campaign ends, Deltaprintr's creators promise to sell extensions to the aluminum beams, allowing you to build objects even taller than the original 12 inches. They will sell extensions of different heights, allowing users to get just as much build space as they want or need for a specific project.
Deltaprintr's
creators are seeking $195,000 for the project. They raised about $65,000
in the first 24 hours of the Kickstarter campaign and as of Dec. 12
have currently raised just over $100,000, with 23 days left to go. The
actual 3D printers are expected to be delivered in July and August 2014,
after production and testing.
Follow Kevin Ohannessian at @khohannessian and on Google+. Follow us @tomsguide, on Facebook and on Google+.- The Future of 3D Printing Materials
- 3D Printer Buyer's Guide 2013
- Forget Plastic: Molten Metal 3D Printers Are Coming
http://news.yahoo.com/deltaprintr-uses-six-arms-quicker-174842054.html
If you think about this new 3D process carefully you could now theoretically using larger and larger extension arms print a whole house, a boat, a car or a plane simply by building a big enough 3D printer using this new method. I suppose you might even print a metal or plastic ship eventually too if one desired to do that. However, metal objects like titanium the printer has to be in a vacuum to do that. So the metal objects made by 3d Printers tend to be things like Titanium replacement hip joints and things like that so far.
If you wanted to make 100, 1000 or 1,000,000 of some object if that 3D printer was well made enough one could theoretically do that too. One would only need the right computer plan, raw materials a place to do it and enough time to do it to make it happen.
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