Category:Mechanical arrangement

There are many different RepRap configurations and some work better as RepRaps and others are easier to use for a RepStrap when fabricating parts with other tools.

Many people would like to compare machines that share the same basic structure to see if there are ideas and improvements they can incorporate on their own machine. There has been no way to guess what the arrangement of a machine has been by just following the ancestors.

Basically there is no way to make an elegant symmetrical 3 axis Cartesian configuration. Most of the compromise configurations have been tried. Some favour mechanical simplicity at the expense of moving the build platform while others attempt to minimise head inertia by using fixed motors and complex belt actuation. A symmetrical system that has a lot of elegance and is gaining popularity is the Delta Bot configuration that converts the Cartesian coordinates onto a different coordinate system that controls 3 identical actuators, either linear or angular to achieve movement in 3 dimensions. The higher speed SCARA style jointed 2 axis systems are gaining favour as designs with parts that can be largely printed and use very few vitamins. The robot arm style requires a lot of precision joints that are not easy to print and are not often seen. A compliant arm system has been proposed that uses flexural members. Polar designs have been proposed and fall between the SCARA and robot arm in complexity

Some RepRap types do not use a traditional single nozzle extruder so are listed on their own by technology type.

Example machines

The arrangement of some of the popular types is as follows, not all are derived from the RepRap project and not all are open source.

• Robot-Arm:
• Cartesian-XY-head: Darwin, RapMan, Ultimaker
• Cartesian-XZ-head: Mendel, Huxley, Prusa
• Cartesian-X-head: Up!, PrintrBot
• Cartesian-Z-head: Makerbot, Bamboo
• Cartesian-XYZ-head: QU-BD
• Delta: Deltabot, Rostock, Kossel, Cerberus
• Laser-cutter: LAOSlaser, LaserSaur
• Polar: RepOlaRap
• Powder: CandyFab, MetalicRap
• Scara: Morgan, Wally, Helium Frog Scara
• UVResin: Lemon Curry
• Compliant: Bamboo
• Other arrangement:

See Also

If a machine page is not listed here you can add it. The discussion page has instructions and examples on what to add to the machine page source to list it on this category page.

RepRap Family Tree has a somewhat dated but very illuminating run-down and graphic of the different arrangements and their evolution.

DriveTrains which has some overlap but contains a lot of other information

Parallel Mic a site with lots of interesting news on parallel kinematic platforms