mendel abp bed design issue and input from community

I've been working on a conveyor bed for the Mendel for a few months off and on. here is my wikipage
[reprap.org] . it is a work in progress.

What It ideally will be is a warp free conveyor belt system, that feeds the bed to the same point every time, and uses vacuum to keep the bed plastic even. also not shown but in the design is an air flow disruptor to keep air flow away from base of parts. The belt is made from paper and kapton tape. also it is light enough not to add a lot of weight.

what i would like to know is what do people think about this conveyor system being 25mm tall?

I could talk to people on this site that do make heater pcb boards and shrink the height down to 15mm. but it would add 100$ cost to anyone making it.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/22/2011 10:24PM by jamesdanielv.

do people prefer tiled heaters for simplicity in construction and cost, or do people prefer a large heated bed with holes in it to provide for vacuum? the idea hear is to use a raised heater bed, with air space in between to act as an accumulator for a week vacuum that is generated by exhaust fans. there should be enough pull to keep a paper kapton tape conveyor on strait and flat. this design is in the works and this video just shows the base-plate section. it took some time to figure out, the previous versions would crumble and would break just pulling out of the tool fixture . this is the first base i have designed, that can endure ruff handling, and also be laser cut.


i thought it would be easy to build a base to show what i was talking about, but it took a long time to come up with a solution that held the tiled copper heaters in place. it would also work for a solid heated bed with holes in it for vacuum. here is a video showing what kind of heater can be constructed with spaces in between for a vacuum to pull down on the conveyor belt. also it shows how rivets would be used to support the bed, and in this case resistors that i have heated to over 150dec

specifically do people mind tiled heaters, or do people want the full size heated bed with 1 copper sheet for a conveyor system?

any constructive comments welcome.

here is the wiki page for the project.

[www.reprap.org]

edit:: ya, video is sideways. sorry taken on my iphone.... fix later...

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/17/2011 07:24AM by jamesdanielv.