Hello fellow tinkerers,
I suddenly got this idea this morning and found it interesting and thought I'd share it to get some feedback on whether I should dwell on it or discard it altogether.
The idea relates to the extrusion mechanism on "regular" Prusa-style printers using geared extruders on the Y-carriage. Usually this causes oscillations in the entire printer upon sudden movements and results in ripples in the printed object, along with other issues. The extruder motor being placed on the Y carriage therefore limits the speed with which one can print quality.
My idea was to remove the extruder motor from the Y carriage and place it on the X idler, opposite of the X motor. This has already been experimented with;
Experimental Off-Carriage Extruder Motor. This would decrease the total mass of the y carriage and allow greater printing speeds. But instead of using a rod for the drive gear, a belt is used to drive a pulley, to which the drive gear is attached. See attached image.
Obviously, some logic will have to be implemented for the extrusion, as the extruder must now counter the movement along the X axis.
Do you think this is worthwhile? Please comment.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/03/2014 05:45AM by Shafiqson.
Attachments:
open |
download -
Off-carriage Belt Driven Extruder - Concept.png
(114.6 KB)