New Extruder Project

We are three brother in Sweden currently building a Reprap. Our goal is to enhance performance of the existing Extruders.
Our speciality is Design aspects. Since I´m a product designer I think there must be a way to make the extruder better and smaller (maybe bigger, who knows?)

We need help though. Id like u people to write down your evaluations on existing extruders and sum up pluses and minuses.. The more aspects you cover the more efficient will we be able to put down our Product Specs on The New Extruder.

And by the way, we need printed Mendel-parts. :-)

/Ahmet

+ stepper-based extruders are better then dc-motors as they can stop and reverse instantly (no stringing)
+ geared down steppers seem to be the state of the art (Wade`s NEMA17-extruder)
+ a firm grip on the filament without eating into it too much and the pulling force that can be translated to the filament seems to be the criteria to optimize
+ bowden-extruders have less movable mass and thus allow faster head-movements and thus faster prints
+ the attachment of the hot-end needs to be immobile and strong
+ the hot zone should be small and well insulated to heat up quickly and hold the temperature as precise as possible
+ the hot zone needs to withstand the force of the expanding filament and the pressure from the extruder
+ there should be minimal friction on the filament

examples:
+ Wade`s extruder is known for it´s pulling force
+ the BfB-extruder is known for it´s reliability and print-quality
+ the bowden-extruder is currently used by the MiniMendel but not yet ported to the Mendel? (please confirm someone)

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We are three brother in Sweden currently building a Reprap. ...
And by the way, we need printed Mendel-parts. :-)

RepRap Svenska Användargrupper Hemsida
[reprap.org]
[forums.reprap.org]
Try "borrowing" a set of parts once you have all your other parts together.

Here is a good template for mediawiki markup code for your extruder wiki page:
[reprap.org]

Lycka Till, as they say (according to machine translation)

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-Sebastien, RepRap.org library gnome.

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Remember, you're all RepRap developers (once you've joined the super-secret developer mailing list), and the wiki, RepRap.org, [reprap.org] is for everyone and everything!

@Sebastien
Thanks,
It means a lot seing that there are other people we actually could cooperate with. Ill get in toch with them.

Its all going slow though since I work and my brothers go to school.

/Ahmet