D-PATCH

taconite

Hey guys,

after countless hours and multiple iterations, I would like to present to you the D-PATCH (Delta Printer with automatic tool changing). To my knowledge there is no Delta Printer available with tool-changing. I have been working on it for over 2 years (started in March 2018) and I am proud, that it is now a reality.

As you can see it’s not completely finished yet, because the actual tool changer is missing, but is in the making. A prototype is existing already.

Stats about the Printer:

Print volume: 300x300mm

Available tools: 5 (for now)

Board: Duet 2 Wifi + Duex 5

Power Supply: 24V 13A Meanwell

Security: Circuit breaker + RCD +Emergency Stop

Bed: milled aluminium bed with 600W mains heater switched with SSR

Print surface: Magnetic bed

Tool-Changing: Automatic and Manual

Control: PanelDue

I will updated the tread when I make more progress.

I'm really curious about your opinions and please let me know if you have any questions.

Adrian

taconite

Added a cover for the electronics compartment and fixed the bed. The bed sits on 1 Standoff and 2 Balls, so that the system is constraint but thermal expansion is allowed.

gtj0

@taconite Nice work! I have no experience with Deltas but I'm definitely interested in how the tool changer works out.

Danal

FANTASTIC. I was thinking about going down this road...

You've posted a lot of info and pics, and I will be looking at them very carefully, meanwhile TELL US MORE!!!

This is incredible. Fantastic. Superlative. Nifty. I'm running out of words (at least without cheating on the web) and I hope I've conveyed just how cool this is.

Bravo!

Now, to look at your pics!!

Danal

Would you be willing to post the tool macros?

taconite

@gtj0 thank you :), I will keep updating this post with news

@Danal Thank you very much for your kind words. It feels good to hear, that people like it
What else would you like to know?

I have not completed the tool macros for this machine, yet but I can upload the ones for the prototype

taconite

Hey Guys,

I uploaded some videos of the first prints here.
Furthermore I added a video of a manual tool change
https://www.youtube.com/user/Taconiteable/videos

Best Regards
Adrian

oliof

That's really cool, I missed your original post! The first tool changing delta I am aware of is from 2013 (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f60YuBrHRCA -- it's actually a pancake printer as shown in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3O19n_JqXU).

We've come a long way in the mean time! Can you give some details on your locking mechanism? It seems way more involved than a bunch of magnets.

taconite

@oliof Yeah you are right - I found these videos, too, when I started to look into tool changing Delta printers, but not many infos out there.

About your question - yeah a little more brain juice went into the design of the locking mechanism.
So it is basically a bayonet lock that is driven by a Bowden cable and reset by a bunch of springs

The pieces of the bayonet that lock the tool are angled so a downward force is created by the rotation of the bayonet. It is locking onto 3 zylindrical pins that are placed 120° apart from each other so that the locking is uniformly

oliof

Pretty cool! I hope you publish your design one day as this would be an interesting setup for three printers down my ideas to build (orthogonal tripteron, or sextupteron). But that's a couple years out optimistically speaking (-:

taconite

Thanks that you like it! Yeah as soon as this version will be finished I'm thinking about publish the files under CC-BY-NC so that the community can use it

BTW: I really love your unconventional tripteron design!

oliof

The design is not mine though. That credit goes to Evan Callicoat.

taconite

Started working on the Tool-Changer itself

taconite

Hey guys,

worked a little bit more on the printer.
I got the first automatic tool change (even if it needs a little more tuning), but it's a first step in the "proof of concept" direction (which I already did with the first prototyp).

https://youtu.be/OE60ZKuhTJ0

fšk

@taconite that's a cool design. Where did you get the tapered metal parts?

taconite

@fšk thank you
I designed the tool so, that it utalizes standard stock material. The tapered part was done by a friend of mine on a standard lathe.

taconite

Tool Change Scripts

taconite

Tool Changing of two tools can be seen here:
https://youtu.be/nLvNUum48fg

upcoming is the first multi-material print

JoergS5

@taconite that's a nice tool changer!

HebigT

@taconite Hey any thoughts about preventing heat-creep after a (hot) tool is placed back on the carousel?

taconite

@JoergS5 Thank you
@jpomo10 of course ;). There are multiple options:

set the stand-by temperature so low, that a equilibrium is reached
(+ no additional fans, - long heat up time)
one fan for each tool in parking position
(+ sufficient cooling, - lot of fans with lots of noise)
one bigger fan with a fan-duct to direct the air to the heat sinks of the tools in parking position

For now I have no fans at all. So after the first prints I had not a lot of heat creep and no problems with jams. But I guess I will move on with option 3

BTW: I posted another video of the first dual color print on youtube

Veti

this looks like a sci fi attack hovercraft

HebigT

@taconite Thanks for the reply!

Is the tool-changer "carriage" set up as an additional axis? How does it increment along with the Z-axis?

taconite

@jpomo10
Yep it is set up as U axis. I wrote a custom post-processing script for cura

taconite

Hey guys,

I keep posting small videos - some are not really special but I still want to share them with you: https://youtu.be/6-CR_1vN3cE

In this small video I print with my go-to 100mm/s-profile

And I just uploaded a video of the change of 4 tools
https://youtu.be/aJt_HRal5rY