MEM and FDM

MEM, Melted Extrusion Manufacturing, is highly similar to what we're doing (also FDM inspired). See the attached PDF.

It is now very well known, however. It is developed in China by Wei Fang. Also have a look at this archived webpage:
[web.archive.org]

Interestingly it incorporates things into the process that I haven't seen in Stratasys' machines (but so far I've mostly seen products that came from the lowest-end Dimension Series).

Real 3D cartesian movement. Not 2.5D like Stratasys currently has. It allows curved motions that, if well coordinated with the amount of flow, could decrease the stair step effect (variable layer height). Since our bot, firmware and electronics are capable of 3D motion, it would be interesting to explore this software challenge.

If you find more resources on MEM, please add them here. I'm comparing lot's of fabrication techniques for a research on how these innovations came about. As a nice side effect I'm learning a tremendous amount of new things about RP techniques.

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Regards,

Erik de Bruijn
[Ultimaker.com] - [blog.erikdebruijn.nl]