High Resolution Paste Extrusion

Good Afternoon,
I am a beginner in the 3D printing world and currently I am designing a 3D printer with paste extrusion in order to print hydrogel on PDMS. For this application motion in the z-axis is not required and the resolution of the printer must be as small as possible. I plan to use an open source extrusion modification and was wondering which 3D printers would be optimal for paste extrusion, is there any accuracy benefit to having more powerful electronics.
Thanks

... what's your resolution target?

Common FDM-printers are driven with belts in XY, so a repeatability of around +/- 0,1mm.

If your repeatability should be better, then you'll need spindle drives -- better look for mechanical setups as common for CNC-milling ...

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If you want better resolution, might want to look at piezo electric motors rather than conventional motors.

The technology is very different, I understand scanning electron microscopes use very large, precision made devices to make things like the worlds smallest movie.

[www.youtube.com]

Technically they can be accurate to within fractions of an electron shell of an atom... I don't think anybody has reliably hit an atomic nucleus with such a setup though.

That's well below what you are looking for scale wise, but the motors might be worth considering.

Quote
VDX

Common FDM-printers are driven with belts in XY, so a repeatability of around +/- 0,1mm.

If your repeatability should be better, then you'll need spindle drives -- better look for mechanical setups as common for CNC-milling ...

You can do better with common FDM printers by fitting belts which, while flexible, are not as elastic as conventional PolyUrethane.

Ones reinforced with steel or (even better) carbon fiber can do better. Old I2 with T7 that I use does about +- 0.4mm - steel reinforced belt.

I suspect it's actually doing better and the issue is, I'm not accounting for ambient temperature when scaling a model prior to printing (that costs time, not materials).

[www.gates.com]

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/01/2016 12:03PM by DragonFire.

You say the resolution must be as small as possible, but that doesn't say much. What resolution do you need?

As Z is not an issue, you are more talking about the plotter than a 3d printer. Right?