How come many of the worlds biggest printers are DELTA?

I'm a sculptor, looking to print human sized objects and larger.

In my searches for giant sized 3D printers, I've noticed Delta's are a common choice for oversized printers.

Can anyone give me any feedback on why this design is chosen?

Also: does anyone have any links or suggested key words / models for DIY Delta that print super large (ie. over 1M diameter?)

... same here -- look at "hangprinter" - [reprap.org]

My first delta-concept (then named "tripod") around 2007 was more meant for high resolution micro-printing ... but it's pretty good scaling for bigger setups too

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Viktor
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Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]

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ArtStudent
I'm a sculptor, looking to print human sized objects and larger.

In my searches for giant sized 3D printers, I've noticed Delta's are a common choice for oversized printers.

Can anyone give me any feedback on why this design is chosen?

Perhaps because deltas are mechanically simple, and delta designs are relatively easy to scale. The moving mass is low and the fixed bed simplifies things.

You might get some inspiration for your build from looking at the Tractus3D product pages.

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Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

Hey thanks for the responses!

VDX -- I've been looking at the hang printer and joined the facebook group, but it seems there's not a whole lot of support. Seems in very experimental stages.
It's fascinating and I'm going to contribute time to the exciting approach, but I'm not sure how soon it will turn into something I can use in my practice.
I'd love to hear more about your TRIPOD project! Did you build it? Do you have any documentation? What did you learn while doing it?


dc42 -- Those are some interesting observations! All of those do seem like logical explanations. The Tractus3D work is amazing. One thing I'm curious about though: The diameter on their biggest printer is only 1M.
Do you have any insight into why Delta's are often so slim, and if the math / kinematics would support a much larger diameter, or if it would just require too much distance from sides?


Any general thoughts on maximum realistic diameters of Deltas? I've read they are less accurate the further from the zero / center / home position.

... my "tripod" was more a demonstrator for a special "double-magnetic-balls-joint" structure, I've blogged at the builders.reprap.org site, what's not online anymore.

Was then searching cooperation here in the forum for the special (double-joint) kinematics software -- but didn't find it, so delayed the OS-development until it faded out ... then, two years later the first "Rostock"-delta started ...

Here some images of the tripod-setup:

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Viktor
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Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]

... for another pretty "slim" setup you could look into "parallel scara" (much more precise than normal or "serial" scara).

Was busy with micro-assembly development between 2000 to 2007 (and developed some pretty "crazy" micro- and nano-systems too) - some of them were based on parallel kinematics, but you'll need more sophisticated tools for them.

A parallel scara is pretty easy to bild too - look into the sub-forum for some hints - [reprap.org]

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Viktor
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Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]

Hey Viktor VDX,
Those are some really cool pictures -- thanks for uploading them.
The printer looks amazing.. Did you get it printing? How small can it print?

The micro-assembly stuff. What does that mean? Sounds super interesting.

I just had to google 'parallel kinematics'.. Found some cool stuff! I've known about Stuart platforms for a while and think they're so cool!
I also saw this video that seemed to have a Delta bot with 4 limbs. Have you ever seen that? Are there any advantages to a 4 armed Delta vs 3?

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ArtStudent
dc42 -- Those are some interesting observations! All of those do seem like logical explanations. The Tractus3D work is amazing. One thing I'm curious about though: The diameter on their biggest printer is only 1M.
Do you have any insight into why Delta's are often so slim, and if the math / kinematics would support a much larger diameter, or if it would just require too much distance from sides?

This is my guess. To increase the diameter, you need to increase the rod length. That may also mean increasing the rod thickness. So the mass of the rods rises steeply with diameter. On the other hand, to increase height you only need to increase the mass of the belts and non-moving parts.

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Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

PS - I've seen a Wasp delta that might have had more than 1m printable diameter.

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Large delta printer [miscsolutions.wordpress.com], E3D tool changer, Robotdigg SCARA printer, Crane Quad and Ormerod

Disclosure: I design Duet electronics and work on RepRapFirmware, [duet3d.com].

... yes, I've seen the 4-arm-deltas ... mainly for fast pick'n'place applications e.g. sorting/packaging cookies

The "tripod" had a building area of roughly 50mm in XYZ and a resoultion around 1 micron (different over the range) -- did the demonstration for my R&D-project and some test, but not used it then -- developed a more precise "cartesian style" XYZ-stage with 3 PZT-motors, capable of 23mm travelling range and 150 nanometer step resolution (sub-nanometers in "clamped" bending mode).

Here a video of a fast "parallel scara" setup, designed for handling the "singularity" positions -- [www.youtube.com]


This "micro-assembly" stuff was mainly for fabricating and assembling sensors and micromechanics -- her a detail image of a TLD-sensor, where I had to place and braze 10µm and 1µm platinum wires with 2 microns accuracy ... the "world smallest chekker board" I've made for a pick'n'place demonstration on a fair ... and some other stuff:



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/26/2020 04:52AM by VDX.

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Viktor
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Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]

Wasp Team (youtube)

SeeMeCNC's giant delta on youtube