In the world of makers and 3D printing everyone can use his or her own expertise to improve on the design, functionality and inner workings of the machines.
As an engineer you would work on how the machine works: specifically on how its engines function.
If you are a robotics engineer you would work on how software and electronics can make those engines, that is the motors, work better.
That is the idea behind RAPPY (Rapid Advanced Precision Printing sYstem), a Kickstarter project by Stellamove Inc. for a low-cost-high-resolution machine that uses a new, sophisticated position feedback system to control its brushed DC motors.
According to the project’s creators, a team of software, manufacturing and robotics experts, it is possible to drastically cut costs, size and weight, while increasing energy efficiency, by using brushed DC motors instead of the brush-less DC stepper motors used in most FDM/FFF 3D printers.
In fact, according to Dynetic Systems, the brushless DC motors also have higher costs of construction, require more expensive controls and need and an electric controller to keep on running.
If the $100,000 KS campaign goal is achieved, the system will ship in July, fully assembled, for $699 plus tax to the first backers.
Other advantages include automatic leveling of the extruder, the possibility of using it for 2D plotting, and a smart, magnetic bed plate.
Still, if Stellamove’s promise will be fulfilled, its greatest advantage will be a drastic reduction in the ticket to enter the magical – or rather, technical – world of 3D printing.
