Conveyor Huxley

What I would like to see is a Huxley type machine that uses a small conveyor belt as one of the axes. They make a belt for the makerbot but it doesn't actually travel back and forth during the build phase - only at completion to dump the part. I want to see the belt actually serve as an axis of motion during the print phase, then travel all the way to drop the part in a basket when finished. This would make the build area twice as large or the footprint of the reprap half as big.

Any thoughts on this?

Here are a few links for reference:
[store.makerbot.com]
[blog.makezine.com]

I want one of these too. I'm thinking that with such a conveyor, we could build parts that are larger than the printer in one dimension, by printing along a diagonal slope rather than mostly XY with occasional Z moves.

Would this allow us to print the frame?


The biggest issue I see is that the bed needs to be very stiff to hold the model in place while printing is occuring. Nophead has demonstrated that atmospheric pressure is insufficient to prevent movement of the bed during a build.

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Wooden Mendel
Teacup Firmware

just had a thought- a tank-tread style conveyor would be ideal as it can be made to roll in one direction but lock in the other. it can also have guiderails at either side of the build platform and be extremely stiff. We just need to make sure that printed parts cross the boundary between two links so they can break off easily

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Wooden Mendel
Teacup Firmware

Why not use a tensioned reel of kapton film?

check out mr kim's 1x2
[reprap.org]
He has a conveyor belt made from packing tape on one of his versions, and I believe he actually uses it as one of the 3 axis.

Strangely enough, he has pulled all of his materials down from youtube, his website is down as well. The reprap page may be the last repository of his design.

_Ross
[blog.tinyenormous.com]