Partially heated bed

Hi,

Building a somewhat larger printer right now I was thinking, why not adding a partially heated bed.
I think it's a bid silly, but most of all there's no need to warm up an complete surface if you only need a very small heated area when printing small object's. What's more doing so, it would save lots of energy if you often print small objects.
Is that been done before, partially heated bed...?

yes its been done.

Any idea how it's done, is there any info on the subject..?

Duet/reprapfirmware support multiple heated beds (so Im told)

The other way I've seen involved a second micro controller and a individual mosfet and thermistor for each section, from memory it wasnt actually connected to ramps. Separate system
manual on off switches for each section. (cant find the article.... )

The trick is to have a flat surface, but separate heatspreaders. One big alu-plate won't work.
I just cover the unused area with small MDF-sheets.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/11/2018 02:42AM by o_lampe.