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Firmware for 3DP printing with 2 powder station.

Posted: Thu Aug 15, 2019 11:29 am
by Dretzz
Hey guys, i´m new here, but i´ve been reading some topics in this forum and anothers about 3dp printing. Recently I joined a project to develop a powder and binder jetting printer, based on PlanB, but with some modifications, and one of them is use two powder stations instead of one. My role in this project is search and modify some open source firmware to control the printer. I´m not so familiar with the 3d printer world, but I have knowledge in programmation and microcontrollers. What I was thinking is try modify the marlin firmware, but do you know how hard is to do marlin work with this 2 powder deposit´s?
I hope that you guys can understand what i´m trying to ask, and if you can recommend any texts about firmwares and 3d printers I will appreciate. Sorry if I mistakes some grammatics (English isn´t my first language).

And just one more question: Exist some other piezoelectric printhead beside Xaar 128 that can be controlled that I can use in 3DP printer?

Thanks so much!!!

Re: Firmware for 3DP printing with 2 powder station.

Posted: Tue Aug 20, 2019 11:09 am
by maxt
Unfortunately I'm not aware of piezo heads, other than the XAAR 128, that can be controlled by open source controllers. I did some search on the Ricoh gh2220, there are a few companies selling controllers for it, but you won't get any direct control over the nozzles.

Why do you need two powder stations ? What is the role of the secondary one ?

Re: Firmware for 3DP printing with 2 powder station.

Posted: Tue Aug 20, 2019 4:56 pm
by Dretzz
We need two powder station because a part of the team is studying the possibility of using two different powder to make a object, spreading out one layer of each powder at time, opening possibilities to make objects with differents compositions.

Re: Firmware for 3DP printing with 2 powder station.

Posted: Wed Aug 21, 2019 4:26 pm
by maxt
Dretzz wrote: Tue Aug 20, 2019 4:56 pm We need two powder station because a part of the team is studying the possibility of using two different powder to make a object, spreading out one layer of each powder at time, opening possibilities to make objects with differents compositions.
yes, but you will still have an entire layer of the same powder ?

Re: Firmware for 3DP printing with 2 powder station.

Posted: Wed Aug 21, 2019 5:07 pm
by Dretzz
Yes

Re: Firmware for 3DP printing with 2 powder station.

Posted: Thu Aug 22, 2019 1:02 am
by david
so ... how would you recycle the powders for next printing? ... unless one of them is much heavier or magnetic ...

Re: Firmware for 3DP printing with 2 powder station.

Posted: Fri Aug 23, 2019 6:40 pm
by Dretzz
david wrote: Thu Aug 22, 2019 1:02 am so ... how would you recycle the powders for next printing? ... unless one of them is much heavier or magnetic ...
Actually we´re studyng a idea that involve some kind of cleanning system (like a brush) that clean the most of excess power in the surface every layer and sepates in a specific compartment. But we still thinking in others possiblities.

Re: Firmware for 3DP printing with 2 powder station.

Posted: Fri Aug 23, 2019 7:12 pm
by david
I think you can try multiple magnetic powders and one final non-magnetic powder:

apply first magnetic powder, print it, take the excess away;
apply second magnetic powder, print it, take the excess away;
... ...
apply nth magnetic powder, print it, take the excess away;
finally apply non-magnetic powder, print it, and don't take the excess away;

and move on to next layer ...