When the RepRap project was started in 2005 by [Dr Adrian Bowyer], the goal was to develop low-cost 3D printers, capable of printing most of their own components. The project slipped into a bit of a lull by 2016 due to the market being increasingly flooded with affordable FDM printers from a growing assortment of manufacturers. Now it seems that the RepRap project may have found a new impetus, in the form of sub-millimeter level fabrication system called the μRepRap as announced by [Vik Olliver] on the RepRap project blog, with accompanying project page.
The basic technology is based around the OpenFlexure project’s Delta Stage, which allows for very precise positioning of an imaging element, or conceivably a fabrication tool. As a first step, [Vik] upgrade the original delta stage to a much reinforced one that can accept larger NEMA17 stepper motors. This also allows for standard 3D printer electronics to control the system much like an FDM printer, only at much smaller scales and with new types of materials. The current prototype [Vik] made has a claimed step accuracy of 3 µm, with a range of tools and deposition materials being considered, including photosensitive resins.
It should be noted here that although this is a project in its infancy, it has solid foundations due to projects like OpenFlexure. Will μRepRap kickstart micrometer-level manufacturing like FDM 3D printing before? As an R&D project it doesn’t come with guarantees, but color us excited.
Thanks to [Tequin] for the tip.
For those with no concept of how small 3 micrometers is. Hair is about 80 to 120 micrometers thick on average. So 3 µm stepping distance is just a tiny bit small.
3µm = 0,00011811 inch or 3.2808398950131236e-8 US football fields.
what is that in african elephants?
Less than 1
25.4 µm = 1 thousandth of an inch.
Lets not make this harder than it (apparently) already is.. /s
Why is there a comma there?
Commas are for sentences.
Anyone that uses commas makes the numbers suspect.
Especially those smelly *metric* ones.
> Commas are for sentences.
And then you used three dots for three sentences without using any comma. Commas are for splitting, dots are for ending.
Like with american football. It’s an egg which you hold in hands. So naturally it’s foot-ball.
Blond or brunette?
From the project page:
> a repeatable motion with a step accuracy of approximately 3 microns was observed.
That is good! Note that most 3D printers tell lies, and report theoretical accuracies, which are wildly wrong, so a 3D printer might report accuracy in this range, but if you measure it it will be orders of magnitudes bigger. As microstepping does not work as an accuracy improver that those theoretical calculations pretend it does.
Note that 3 microns is about how much longer a 25 cm piece of aluminum will expand lengthwise when you heat it up by 1 degrees C.
To claim such repeated accuracy is bunk, because just breathing on the machine will make it off by 3 microns. You can measure such motions, but it doesn’t mean anything because the whole structure is constantly shifting around and flexing by orders of magnitude more
Wait, there are 3d printers that try to advertise micrometer precision? Lol
100 micrometers is 0.1 millimeter.. depending on your definition of “advertising micrometer precision”. I’d say all of them do?
By your definition, I can throw a ball with angstrom precision.
‘X’ precision implies that the device can operate within steps of a single ‘X’ unit, not that their precision level can be measured in those units.
That’s like saying the sun is millimeter-sized, because its size can be measured in millimeters.
Precision and accuracy – two different things. One can move with micrometer steps, but where they’ll end up can be hundreds of microns off target.
I’ll add this project to my watch list as it shows great potential for various topics of interest. For example, analyzing the internals of chips with micro probing, or even creating some simple circuits from scratch. But these tools have the potential to do a lot more. This could enable a lot in the hardware hacking and chip reversing fields. Furthermore, I expect similar tools are available but unaffordable in other fields.
Except I’ve already done it. No worries, people were telling us RepRap was impossible when we had them in our workshops printing away. Used to that.
I’m on http://blog.reprap.org/ as it is internet searchable. Come play!
The easy trick is to not use 250mm long bits of stuff and to control the temperature. And remember that when this RepRaps, it’ll be built on the micron scale and thermal expansion will not be such an annoying factor.
I’m sorry all these posts are apparently aimed at you. They’re not. It’s just that the Hackaday website is deciding to send them all to you for reasons I do not understand.
to machinists it’s roughly a 10th, or a 1/10 or a thou, a thou being 1/1000 or 25.4µm and a 1/10 of that is 2.54µm
well yes, but actually no.
A machinist can measure to a tenth on their work but actually repeatably changing a machining process to effect a change of one tenth is impossible. Machinists work in the thousandth realm.
At micrometer precision, what you measure and how you measure becomes extremely important. Your micrometer may read to a 1/10, but your measurement may be accurate to a thou because of other variables like how you hold the tool. At that level even the heat from your hands starts to affect the measurement. How big the object is at the micron level is not well defined either, because your tool marks will leave a surface roughness around one micron in the typical case. Your micrometer will be pressing on the peaks of the rough surface over a large area, giving you a false reading.
RepRap project is about self replication. It is not making any random machine out of 3D printed parts. Can we just let the name go since the desire to reduce vitamins in replicators has long past.
Sad but true. 🥲
Oh, it’ll reproduce eventually. Might even do so on a smaller scale yet. I have a few ideas on how to control it. It might be possible to control arrays of printers simultaneously.
I see little use in making hair size benches but modifying it for tiny circuits and microsoldering might be fun. Producing transistors like it is the 60s!
We’ll be aiming to produce circuitry. Not necessarily stuff that uses it for creating motion. There are a lot of interesting electrochemical effects that currently use test tubes which may perform better on the micron scale. Largely these are ignored because they’re not compatible with silicon But they do allow individual experimentation. One key use for these will be creating the equivalent of end stops.
Good work Vik as usual.
I will add this to my pile of projects I need to build for sure.
Would love to see you back in #reprap discussing development. It would be refreshing to the channel.
I’m updating http://blog.reprap.org/ and have uploaded an image of a 30μm deposited blob made with a similar size tip. Using chonky probe until I get better control. If anyone is good with Marlin software on delta printers, I need advice.