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JustAnotherOne
@nicholas.seward : I don't see the need for slicing on a phone, thats probably me growing too old.

Haha I can relate to that. But a cheap $50 android tablet for example could be the perfect "screen" for a 3D printer. Just one use case.

I think html5 is great for a prototype for another reason. Anybody will be able to test the slicer without having to install or build or compile anything - no package or library not even an app. And a prototype shouldn't also have the burden of also being production ready or optimized anyway. Experimentation and easy deployment are far more important than a few seconds speed. If these ideas and algorithms work out you can be sure someone will port it to c++ and could simply replace the whole slicer module in Cura. Or something.

Also javascript is being compiled by the browser so it's not a interpreted language anymore. And for an academic there aren't even any performance differences except for stuff like o(n^2) and o(logn)

And sometimes it's much easier to test an idea by starting "tabula rasa" instead of working with a big code base.

Just some articles I've stumbled over today by chance:

Adobe Files Patent for ‘Smooth 3D Printing’ Process (I think it's a different process)

5AxisMaker – First Affordable 5-axis 3D Printer (you probably already know about this).

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/21/2015 10:43PM by Dejay.

I am pretty sure Topolabs got bought out. I want to say it was AutoDesk but it could be Adobe. I did a google search to verify and there is no public information about a buy out so take that with a grain of salt.

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ConceptFORGE
Wally, GUS Simpson, LISA Simpson, THOR Simpson, Sextupteron, CoreXZ

What about putting a small printer inside a roll cage type contraption, for rotating the whole printer, as a "simple" way of getting the extra axis?
I've seen 3d printers printing sideways and upside down, and in 0-gravity even, so it should work...
You should be able to print bridges vertically, at least a couple of layers, then return to "normal" and continue printing, with a smart slicer... getting that smarts into the slicer is the difficult part, but doable, bridges are already recognized internally in the slicer as such.

Paucus

@Paucus: The problem with just rotating the whole printer is that it gains you very little. The plastic forces are much much greater than gravity forces. For the same reason that you have seen printers work in various orientations, you won't get much benefit from changing the direction of gravity. Bridging may be improved (gravity does come into play with bridging) but overhangs will still have the 45 degree limit.relative to the build plate.

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ConceptFORGE
Wally, GUS Simpson, LISA Simpson, THOR Simpson, Sextupteron, CoreXZ

@paucus
I don't know if I understand what you are saying. Rotating the complete printer would only change the direction of gravity. And the printers you observed that print sideways or upside down only show that gravity has not much influence.

If we could rotate the complete printer, but not the build platform, instead of only rotationg the nozzle, that could possible be a way. Also only rotating the build platform, but not the printer,...

The main problem still remains, besides that hardware you need completely new Slicers,...

I need to try it by hand I guess, but I would imagine that a long bridge WOULD be affected by gravity, so if you made it vertically it would be much straighter... maybe my intuition is wrong. Anyone try it? But sagging is due to gravity, so if you remove it, it should not sag. And with FDM bridging is the big problem to getting better prints of ANY geometry...

Paucus

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paucus
I need to try it by hand I guess, but I would imagine that a long bridge WOULD be affected by gravity, so if you made it vertically it would be much straighter... maybe my intuition is wrong. Anyone try it? But sagging is due to gravity, so if you remove it, it should not sag. And with FDM bridging is the big problem to getting better prints of ANY geometry...

Paucus

Absolutely. Bridging could be greatly improved by changing the direction of gravity (or eliminating it). If improving bridging is the goal, you only need one additional DOF. Print sideways and have the additional DOF rotate around the printers Z. If you want to print with standard gcode, have the firmware approximately align long moves with gravity.

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ConceptFORGE
Wally, GUS Simpson, LISA Simpson, THOR Simpson, Sextupteron, CoreXZ

Just to add my two cents (or pence) How would you connect the heating elements for a heated bud for the use of ABS and such, there are rotations connectors for low current connections but the higher bed currents need a heavier more relabel connection.

you could run the wiring through the bed arm but still a swivel connection will need to be fitted somewhere.

BTW someone is working on a rotating bed printer on this forum somewhere

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/08/2015 03:00AM by GRAYWOLF.

@GRAYWOLF: Going off the rails here but you could do it with a static heating element. Transmit thermal instead of electrical energy.

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ConceptFORGE
Wally, GUS Simpson, LISA Simpson, THOR Simpson, Sextupteron, CoreXZ

I would guess that you could also improve bridging by printing slowly so the plastic can cool off. So ideally a slicer should take the cooling properties into account too. And of course add to the bridge slowly, line by line.

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nicholas.seward
@GRAYWOLF: Going off the rails here but you could do it with a static heating element. Transmit thermal instead of electrical energy.

Kepping it slightly off topic - Would one of them infered heaters work?

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GRAYWOLF

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nicholas.seward
@GRAYWOLF: Going off the rails here but you could do it with a static heating element. Transmit thermal instead of electrical energy.

Kepping it slightly off topic - Would one of them infered heaters work?

Yeah or even induction heating.

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ConceptFORGE
Wally, GUS Simpson, LISA Simpson, THOR Simpson, Sextupteron, CoreXZ

A heated bed draws only a few amps. This can easily be done by slip-rings and brushes like any dc-motor has.
-Olaf

Related: [3dprint.com]

Hopefully the details will be released soon.

Note: With a rotating bed, one thing you definitely need to think about is the level of the bed. If it's not flat (and you can't compensate for whatever reason, be it design, lack of a sensor, etc), you will have issues with objects sticking to your bed.

Very cool!

Found another semi interesting video for this topic: 5-axis 3D printing - Surface Conformal 3D Printing (5axismaker)

Here is one solution to the hardware for moving the print itself....rather expensive and lots of modification required. 5 axis desktop mill