Would it be possible to create a 3D printer which can directly be fed plastic pellets to print them into plastic parts by integrating a filament extruder with a filament-consuming FDM printer?
So the first part of the device would be like a filament extruder, and would accept plastic in pellet form, converting it into extruded plastic filament. The second part of the device would consume the plastic filament and print it into the desired parts.
I assume the advantages of such a machine would be that it directly accepts plastic in its cheaper raw pellet form, but it can nevertheless still print in a reasonably accurate way, since the print head is dealing with plastic in filament form rather than in pellet form.
Has anyone ever considered building such a machine?
What would be the challenges and difficulties of such an approach?
