Development Pathway
Contents
Working Notes, please log in and edit!
These should be autogenerated by the 'Development' catagory or template. Or integrated in some other manner.
As we mention when discussing the Combinatorics Problem, a new design can be "better" from some other design in many different ways.
Erik de Bruijn lists these broad areas of potential improvements: [1]
- Added functionality:
- Use of ceramics and pastes instead of thermoplastics
- The ability to function in subtractive as well as additive operating modes (e.g., Hydra-MMM).
- The ability to mix multiple materials.
- Embedding wire and conductive materials
- extended auxiliary tools (Erik de Bruijn, "On the viability ..."; "3.1.3 Technological innovations")
- Improved existing functionality
- Faster, more efficient, more detailed and/or stronger output
- Increased ease of assembly and use
- Lower cost
- More suitable components (e.g. easier-to-acquire)
- Specialization towards a certain application
- Digital pottery system
- Interoperability with other systems
- Compatibility with G-Code common in industrial CNC installations
- platform independent software
- Improved design architecture (e.g. modularization, part consolidation)
- Refining operating techniques
- Improved sharing infrastructure
Better electronics is discussed at Alternative Electronics. Better host software is discussed at Host software Variations. Many ideas for making things better are listed at ideas to place.
Increased Resolution
Increased Build Area
Development:Mendel Apollo and MegaRap
Materials Selection
discussions of the pros and cons of various frame materials go in frame material.
discussions of the various materials that can be shaped by a RepRap are currently at MaterialsScience.
discussions of the various techniques used to shape various materials are currently at Materials/Appropriate Machines.
discussions of particular tool heads used on a RepRap to shape particular materials are at RepRapToolHeads and FutureToolIdeas.
Post-Mendel Designs
Basic Box
Basic Box is a waypoint to developing a RBS SplineScan cabinet.
RepStraps
MegaRap
Mendel is great, but I can currently
- Carry it through a standard doorway
- Lift it by myself
- Fit it in the back seat or trunk of a car
- Use it on a corner of my desk (as opposed to a dedicated room in a house, or a shed, garage, or barn)
We at RepRap agree this is a real problem. That's why MegaMendel is here to help!
Gert Joergensen has built the MegaMendel, a mighty machine with a build area of 766mm x 453mm x 497mm.
Some "Need bigger surface!" ideas for scaling up to 200 mm x 400 mm heated bed, might apply to even larger scales.
There's been some discussion "RepRap / RepStrap for making Aerodynamic Models" circa 500mm x 500mm x 500mm.
There's been some discussion of a "1 x 1 m print area reprap".
Someonewho? has built LeBigRep, an even bigger machine with a build area of 1000mm x 1000mm x 1000mm. -- a Cubic Meter Bot.
Perhaps you can "Help me design a large Rostock" 4ft diameter (1.2 m diameter).
If that is not big enough, MegaRap is a (currently hypothetical) RepRap. It may be a PourStrap or WeldStrap and is definitely a CNC Router which can process 4 ft x 8 ft sheets of plywood, foam, etc. See CNC router#BigRap, RouterStrap.
Many people would like a CNC machine big enough to hold a "full-sized sheet" of 1.2 m × 2.4 m ( 4 feet × 8 feet, aka "four by eight" or "48 x 96") sheet of Wikipedia: plywood or MDF or other Wikipedia: engineered wood or foam, etc.; and then cut it into FlatPack parts.
Are there any good ideas we can take from larger devices -- the open-source torch table, the RouterStrap#MechMate, etc. -- that we can scale down and apply to the MegaRap?
Not sure where to put this idea. I came along the Polargraph Machine for 2D printing. Polargraph.co.uk and I was very impressed by the video Big Bear. After some thinking, the question came up, when using 3 instead of 2 cords with an extruder etc in the middle it should be possible to have a very simple and small 3D printer. Based on the accuracy of the pen plot there is a good chance that a lightweight printer head (as started in the RepRap II models) could allow high accuracy, too. When the print model is lightweighted, it also possible to have a fixed printhead and move the model around.
Laser Cutter
PourStrap
FlatPack PourStrap
A Flatpack PourStrap is a PourStrap where the mold is made from sheets of acrylic or wood. The sheets are cut using a laser cutter, cnc router, or table saw.
SLSRap
SLSRap is a RepRap which SLSs its own optics fixtures like lens holders and so on.
By SLS, are you referring to selective laser sintering SLS Printer ?
Library
Along with a few dozen post-mendel and RepStrap designs, we want a library of 10,000 or so things to make with RepRaps.
See Available Files for parts we already have in our library.
Note, these Development Pathway notes may slightly replicate and encapsulate the Gada Prize stuff.- ↑ Erik de Bruijn. "On the viability of the open source development model for the design of physical objects. Lessons learned from the RepRap project". 2010. In particular, "3.1.3 Technological innovations" and "Appendix C".
