Moving 3D Printer

grabcad

Moving 3D Printer This device is a 3d printer that’s print bed can be as long as a room. The printer is meant to be placed on a non carpeted floor and that has a strip of 6.25 inches wide kapton tape that stretches as far as space will allow.The robot will print an object that fits within a 6 inch cube it’s wheels will move the robot 6 inches forward and then it will print another object or objects that fits within a 6 inch cube. The printer will continue to do this until it runs out of kapton tape. The printer works by having a 3d printer extruder as the end effector that can move in four axes of motion. The x gantry is moved by one stepper motor using a gt2 pulley and the y axis gantry is moved by two stepper motors also using a gt2 pulley, while the z-axis of the printer is controlled by two stepper motors with lead screws raising and lowering the x and y-axis as needed. The z-axis uses a lead screw because it doesn’t require energy to hold it up when the axis isn’t moving. The fourth axis of motion is the wheels that move the robot to the next print surface once the previous one is complete. All of these motors are controlled by an arduino micro control. This device is more time efficient than conventional 3d printers. Often, 3d prints will finish in the middle of the night, which means that from the time the object is done to when people can replace the printbed time is wasted. It has been my experience that high school student, in STEM program often don’t get to uses the 3d printer as much as they’d like due to how time consuming 3d printing is. This device will allow more students to get experience with 3d printing so that when they go of to college they will be well prepared for the challenges of an engineering degree.