3D Printers

Tekma3D Rearranges Desktop 3D Printing for Better Performance

After a few years worth of 3D printers launching on Kickstarter, you’d think that all of the arrangements of motors, rails, printheads had been tried out and we’d been left with boxy Cartesian 3D printers, vertical deltabots, and whatever you call Printrbot’s layout.  Tekma3D’s TM1 3D Printer has hit the crowdfunding site with a unique approach and a promise of better performance.

Tekma3D TM1 3D Printer seriesThe campaign asks what many 3D printing enthusiasts probably did, upon seeing the project, “There’s no shortage of affordable 3D printers available today, so why bother creating a new one?” Tekma3D’s answer is that they’ve tackled the “the accuracy, speed, noise and vibration problems that plague low-cost 3D printers.” How have they done it? The aerospace and robotics engineers behind the TM1, Michael Everman and Bill Spracher, developed a patent-pending motion stage they’ve trademarked ServoSpline™, which reduces noise and vibrations and increases speed and accuracy.  They describe the ServoSpline™ this way:

[The ServoSpline™] positions the part under TM1’s precision gear-driven extruder head. It consists of two independently-driven pinions that engage with elastomeric racks on the underside of the build plate. The splines guide, support and drive the build plate. Free of the backlash found in most rack-and-pinion motion, the new build platform achieves positioning accuracies better than 0.005-inches at maximum build speed. The ServoSpline design also keeps the number and mass of moving parts to a bare minimum, limiting cost and promoting smooth, accurate motion.

Tekma3D TM1 3D Printer printsTheir unique method of movement allows the TM1 to print layer thicknesses of about .05mm (50 microns) at speeds of up to 200mm/s.  The only FFF printer that claims a fine level of layer thickness is the Robox 3D printer from CEL, which claims a possible layer height of 20 microns.  The Tekma3D team, however, boasts that their design will be more accurate than other FFF machines at these speeds, so we’ll have to wait and see if the claims really hold up.

The TM1 is being offered at a very reasonable market price of $1499, but early birds can catch the worm at a price of $1199 if they head over to the Kickstarter page now.  If you’d like some more convincing, you can try the campaign video below:


Source: Kickstarter