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Editor, PB-3001
Editor, PB-3001
Abstract
Nowadays 3D printing is a hot topic and this was specially observed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Hence,
this project has the objective to present the design and implementation of a 3D printer, which fits the
Mechanical Engineering Courses requisites. The founded solution follows the Delta architecture and it was
called Delta MAPL. This paper will summarize all important definitions and knowledge to build a 3D printer
such as, 3D printers technologies and architectures, expose the developed project involving mechanic and
electric project, project cost, programming and slicer, calibration, printing parameters, and will also expose
de results through implementation of the project, 3D printing tests, and also the documentation with all
design parts, codes and printing parameters. Therefore, 3D printer is very useful and involving many fields
of Mechanical Engineering knowledge, thus 3D printing develops not only knowledge in mechanic, electric,
sensors and actuators and material properties, but also creativity and problem-solving that are so
important for all engineering students.
1. Introduction
Nowadays, the new Industry revolution, usually called Industry 4.0, refers to the emergence and diffusion
of a range of new digital industrial technologies as Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data and Analytics,
Robotic, and Additive Manufacturing (3D printing). On this way, the 3D printing has lots of advantages,
such as, it is more available than traditional manufacturing, the products can be more customized compared
to traditional process, it has relatively easy production of complex parts, it also has little or no waste of raw
material, and the processes can be reversed as others additive process by remelting the material with the
filament shape. However, there are some issues, such as, higher production time, inefficiency, higher cost,
lower precision, lower resistance mechanic and thermic, comparing to subtractive processes (Strange and
Zucchella, 2017).
For this reason, diverse enterprise and communities investing in 3D printer (Stratasys, Markerbot, Prusa
and RepRap), 3D slicers (Simplify3D, Cura, and IdeaMaker) and repositories of parts (Thingiverse,
CGTrader and Cults) for industrial and domestic users.
Due to COVID-19 pandemic the use of 3D printer increased. Many open-source designs of medical
equipment and personal protective equipment (PPE) were developed by communities for combat against
COVID-19, by printing protective masks, face shield, ventilator systems and valves (Belhouideg, 2020).
These parts can be manufactured anywhere that have a 3D printer available, so it is ideal for small,
diversified and local production (Strange and Zucchella, 2017), furthermore, 3D printing can reduce the
burdens of trade tariffs and transportation costs (Laplume et al., 2016).
To accelerate the development of 3D printing, RepRap was created in 2005. It is a community to develop
self-replicating manufacturing machine, normally use lots of 3D print parts and low-cost material to build
this 3D printers, the projects are open source, so, it is freely available for anyone. They say that “the most
important thing you can print in a 3D printer is another 3D printer” (RepRap, 2020). This project follows
RepRap’s project, therefore it is open source and easy replicable, too.
On this way, there are lots of ‘Do It Yourself’ (DIY) 3D printer kits to buy, and the user can build his/her
own 3D printer. This is one of the lowest way to buy a 3D printer and a good way to learn how it works
(Best DIY - All3DP, 2020). A survey answered by teacher who use 3D printer in the classroom inform that
the students developed many skills while working on 3D printing projects, including 3D modeling,
creativity, technology literacy, problem-solving, self-directed learning, critical thinking, and perseverance
(Trust and Maloy, 2017).
In addition to these skills, the use of 3D printers on the engineering courses is important to aid the
extensions project to develop their projects and to assist the students on the Computer Aided Design (CAD)
classes. Furthermore, the study of the use and how this machine works involves many engineering subjects
which can help in the education of the student, such as, manufacturing processes, metrology, elements of
mechanical construction, kinematic system, power transmission, electric, sensors and actuators, heat
transfer, thermoplastic, mechanical properties, mechanic of solids, among others.
This paper will present the main concepts to know to develop a 3D printer in the bibliographic review.
After that, the methodology will explain how this project was developed through the requisite analysis. The
chapter of 3D printer design explains the specification of the printer, presenting the mechanical and
electrical project, necessary components, programing, calibration, and total cost of this 3D printer. In the
next section it is showed the implementation of the 3D printer, its tests, and the open documentation for
future improvements of this project.
The main objective of this paper is to develop the design and implementation of a 3D printer to illustrate
all the engineering areas that are essential to learn and how this new technology can aid in the process of
education in diverse engineering courses, especially in the in aeronautical, mechanical and mechatronic
courses. This paper will not have a focus on the 3D printed parts accuracy and quality surface.
2. Bibliographic Review
2.1 Additive Manufacturing
Additive Manufacturing (AM) is a technique of manufacturing which use CAD to build objects layer by
layer (ASTM, 2020). There are seven categories according American Society for Testing and Materials
(ASTM) and many technologies as Table 1 shows.
Among these technologies, one of the most prominent are FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling), SLA
(Stereolithography) and SLS (Selective Laser Sintering). All of them have advantages and disadvantage
when comparing dimensional accuracy, time printing, cost, surface finish and mechanical properties. These
features are presented in next subsections.
2.1.1.2 SLA
Similar with FDM, this technology also builds the object layer by layer by making 2D drawings. Therefore,
these layers are built with a UV laser which will solidify a liquid photopolymer resin which is
photosensitive (Sculpteo, 2020) (Gibson et al, 2010), as shown in Figure 3. This is the best technology for
high surface finish and dimensional accuracy; however, the resin can be very expensive and normally has
fragile fracture (Choudhari and Patil, 2016) (Sculpteo, 2020).
2.1.1.3 SLS
This technology is usually reserved for professional companies. The idea is also generating the part layer
by layer by making 2D drawings. However, this time the laser will sintering together powder particles in
the shape of the cross-section by heating and the building platform will go down for recover with other
layer of powder (Sculpteo, 2020) (Gibson et al, 2010) (Legutko,2018), as shown in Figure 4. There are
many advantages, for instance highest durability of the parts, lots of options of materials and it doesn’t
need to use supports. Therefore, the cost of the 3D printer is very expensive and the system is more complex.
(Choudhari and Patil, 2016) (Sculpteo, 2020).
2020). The three architectures most found are Cartesian, COREXY and Delta, hence, the focus will be in
these models. The comparison between these printers is hardly found in articles. Nevertheless, there are
many sites and forum of 3D printer that make this comparison.
The Cartesian model has the X, Y and Z controlled separately like in the Figure 5 are called Cartesian.
Thus, it uses normally one motor for X axis, other motor for Y axis and two motors for symmetry in Z axis.
Due to this independent of each axis, it has the easiest calibration, assembly and found troubleshoot in sites
and forums. Nonetheless, it is the most limited architecture, lower limit speed of printing, more vibration
and inertia, and impossibility to print tall parts, due to the movement of the printing bed in Y.
The COREXY is very similar with cartesian, however the Z movement is due to the movement of the bed
by two motors and the X and Y axis movements are determined by the control of two motor which works
together by a belt association (Figure 6). Each belt color (Figure 6) is associate with your respective motor.
Is a good printer to work in the XY plane, high printing speed, can print higher parts than cartesian due to
the only Z movement of the bed. However, is the most expensive one in reason of the necessity of a more
robust structure and more rigid table due to the vertical movement, moreover, the process of calibration is
more difficult than Cartesian, because there are two motors which works together.
Among the three architecture the most different kinematic is the Delta one. the movement of X, Y and Z
axis is due to three motors, one in each tower which work together to move the axis in vertical, as illustrate
in Figure 7. This structure is the simplest, use only three motors for movement instead of four, as the others
International Educative Research Foundation and Publisher © 2021 pg. 298
International Journal for Innovation Education and Research www.ijier.net Vol:-9 No-03, 2021
models. Enable to print tall parts due to its height and the static print bed. Moreover, this kind of printer is
easily extended in Z direction without redo the project. Can move in Z direction faster because it doesn’t
use thread bar or spindle. The move system is lighter, because it only uses delta arms, the hot end and the
effector, so it results in lower inertia, enable high printing speed and use stepper motor with less torque.
Furthermore, this structure takes up little horizontal space, making it easier to position it. However, due to
this different kinematic, this is the most difficult architecture to calibrate and fix problems, it is worse to
works in XY plan, and has a small 3D printer area by reason of circular bed.
3. Methodology
3.1 3D printer Requisite analysis
The aim of this project is to develop one machine which can be used by the Mechanical engineering courses
to improve the student knowledge and aid the implementation of many projects. Thus, it will be necessary
the use of one kind of manufacture which is relatively cheap to implement, produce very complex parts at
low cost, allows rapid prototyping for customized parts and small batches, it can be achieved by the additive
manufacturing (AM) (Attaran, 2017).
There are lots of AM technologies, however, for this project was chosen the fused deposition modelling
(FDM), by reason of it provides a range of raw material with different mechanical properties for many
applications, it is cheaper compared with the other technologies, and the process of fabrication is relatively
simple (Calignano et al.,2017).
To choose the type of the FDM printer it necessary to establish the requirement of this project. It will be
analyzed the cost of printer with the same printing volume, printing time, printing accuracy, superficial
quality, printing volume in relation with printer volume, facility to calibrate and fix problems and facility
to enclosure the structure.
With the aim of choose the best printer to build for the conditions of this project, distinct weights for each
factor were assigned. The cost is the most relevant so the weight is five, printing time, accuracy and
superficial quality are very important so the weight is three, and the other factors are less reelevates for the
Figure 8. Relation of the angle of the arm and the multiplier of speed (Delta geometry - RepRap,
2019).
The delta heat bed has 22 cm of diameter but only 20 cm of heat zone. Applying the minimum angle as 20º
the useful diameter will be 17 cm. Besides, the height of the printer is defined to achieve the printing
volume with a cylinder with 38 cm of height and a cone on the top with 2 cm of height, as shown in Figure
9. This cone zone is not good to print because the arm may hit the top of the printer. For this reason, the
printing volume considered is the cylinder with 38 cm of height and 8,5 cm of radius resulting in 8625 cm3.
After define the printing volume the CAD was developed, the first version of the printer has only aluminum
profile in the tower and the bottom and the top are aluminum plate, however the stiffness of the aluminum
plate is not high besides it is expensive to buy this plate cut by an CNC (Computational Numerical Control).
Thus, it was done many changes to increase the stiffness of the structure without increase the price as shown
in Figure 10.
This final version has two aluminum profile with 20 mm x 20 mm and they have a distance to increase the
momentum of inertia, this solution is more rigid and has a close price than use just one 30 mm x 30 mm
aluminum profile. Furthermore, all corners of the triangle are 3D printed and can be printed in other printers,
the motors of the tower are hidden on the bottom besides the structure is more compact in area and height.
To guarantee the linear movement of the carriage at the tower it was used two smooth rods for each tower
and a linear bearing was placed in the carriage (Figure 11). Theses smooth rods also increase the stiffness
of the structure. It was used a screw that went through the corners parts to guarantee the fixation of the
parts in addition to preventing the pieces from breaking by shearing layers.
Figure 10. First version and last version of the Delta MAPL with stiffness improvements.
To adjust the tension of the belts which promotes the carriage movement it was developed as simple system
which can vary the length of the belt by adjusting two screw (Figure 12). Moreover, the most used screws
in this 3D printer have been the allen type, because this screw can be adjusted in locations of difficult
access.
Programing the printer is a simple task, because there are many firmwares such as Repetier, RepRap and
Marlin, they have all functions implemented and the user only need inform which functions he wants
activate and give the parameters. In this phase the user informs, the printer type, the direction of rotation
and step of the motor, the kind of thermistor, the dimensions of the printer, in this case of delta, arm length,
delta radius and print radius (Figure 11), and other information. For this project the firmware chose was
Marlin due there are more documentations and information in forums, besides that it has many GCODE
functions and implemented functions.
Furthermore, it is possible to program a starting and ending script by GCODE to make the printer repeat
this task all times after and before a printing. For this project the starting script the GCODE was
implemented to configure the printer parameters of geometry, and the nozzle cleaning by a programed
motion of the nozzle on the bed. For the ending script the GCODE was implemented to turn off the heater
of the bed and of the hotend and disable the motors.
360 [1]
𝑆𝑡𝑒𝑝/𝑚𝑚 =
(𝑀𝑜𝑡𝑜𝑟_𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑝_𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑙𝑒 ∗ 𝐷𝑟𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑟_𝑚𝑖𝑐𝑟𝑜𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑝𝑝𝑖𝑛𝑔) ∗ (𝐵𝑒𝑙𝑡_𝑝𝑖𝑡𝑐ℎ ∗ 𝑃𝑢𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑦_𝑡𝑜𝑜𝑡ℎ_𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡)
𝑛𝑜𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑙_𝑠𝑖𝑧𝑒 [2]
𝑁𝑒𝑤𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑝/𝑚𝑚 = 𝑂𝑙𝑑𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑝/𝑚𝑚 ∗
𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑙_𝑠𝑖𝑧𝑒
Moreover, one of the most important calibration is the printing of the first layer, because the bed is a plane,
but the real movement of a delta not ideal isn’t regular due to the variations in the real geometry. To reduce
this problem a set of three screws was placed to adjust the angle of the table plane. This is one of the most
famous calibration. However, for delta it is not sufficient, the position of the three ends stop sensors change
the kinematic of the printer. To solve this problem an offset of distance was made by GCODE with the
function M666 to change the reference of the position of the end stop sensors. Besides that, to adjust the
distance between the nozzle and the bad the height of the printer was set as 390.90 mm and to adjust the
concavity of the nozzle motion the delta radius was set as 103.3 mm by the M665 command.
but will demand a high material flow. Moreover, it is possible to increase the layer height and the width of
the path, it will permit print the pieces faster, but with a worse resolution decreasing the accuracy and
superficial quality. There are many other parameters to change but it is not the aim of this paper.
5. Results
5.1 Implementation
The printer was implemented as the expected in the CAD software (Figure 15). All printed parts were
printed in ABS, the firsts parts were printed more than one time to adjust the clearance or interference fits
between the parts. But after that was observed a systematic error in all holes around 0.25 mm than the
nominal dimension, maybe in reason of the retraction of the material. To solve this problem all holes which
cannot have an interference fit where increased in 0.25 mm. There is a function called horizontal size
compensation but it is not recommended because it changes the external dimension too.
To reduce the quantity of wires outside the printer it was placed all wire of the motors and of the mosfet
inside the aluminum profile to the RAMPS. Unfortunately, there are many wires in a 3D printer and
disappear with most of them is really difficult, mainly in RAMPS.
It was implemented also a support for the filament spool with bearing on the top of the printer to reduce
the energy losses (Figure 15). There is also the regulation of belt tension (Figure 12) and the regulation of
the angle of the table plane by the rotation of the small white pieces in Figure 16. Moreover, due to the
mechanical project the printer is verry rigid and has little vibration, this increases mainly the surface quality
of the printed parts (Figure 15).
Figure 15. Final version of 3D CAD and the implemented project of Delta MAPL.
5.2. Tests
To validate the Delta MAPL printer, it was used a printing test part developed in the MAPL with printing
speed of 60 mm/s. This part has many different surfaces like a shaft, a hole, a curvature, and many planes
(Figure17). This printing allows to analyze the surface quality and allows acquire different measures to
analyze the accuracy. On this way the surface quality is verry smooth and the accuracy of the printer varies
according to the measures, the biggest dimension of this part has 60 mm, the difference between the
nominal and real dimension on the heigh and the diameter of the shaft if smaller than 0,05 mm, but for X
and Y dimensions the error is greater and with an average of 0.50 mm.
These results of surface quality and accuracy was expected due to the non-ideal geometry of the printer
and the information on the Table 1. But this accuracy error can be mitigated by using a sensor of auto
leveling of the bed.
5.3 Documentation
The open-source projects of 3D printing have been crucial to the development of the technology. For this
reason, all essential information of this project, such as CAD parts, configuration of slicer and Marlin code
were shared in two open-source site of CAD projects and 3D printing parts, in GrabCAD
(https://grabcad.com/library/delta-printer-mapl-1) and Thingiverse
(https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4562522) respectively. Thus, the community can implement this
project freely and anyone can improve this project and reshare with the community, it is the best way for
dissemination of knowledge of 3D printer and aid to improve this technology.
7. Acknowledgement
Authors wish to acknowledge Prof. Dr. Ricardo Ribeiro Moura (UFCAT) for his contribution in the design
of this printer and knowledge in the field of 3D printing. Moreover, the supports from CNPq, CAPES,
FAPEMIG and UFU.
8. References
3D printing technology – Delta versus Cartesian, Tractus3D. Viewed 18 December 2020
<https://tractus3d.com/knowledge/learn-3d-printing/3d-printing-technology-delta-versus-cartesian/>.
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