D3D Dual Extruder

[dglass3d 0]

Hi everyone,

I'm Brian from Dglass 3D. Some of you may have seen our kickstarter in August for our dual extruder,our project was not funded but we continue to push forward with development to make it a reality. We have recently finished a mechanical revision that simplifies the design and improves the functionality.

We were contacted by a few asking if it would fit an Ultimaker 2 and I was directed here to learn more about this community. I see there are many questions about dual extruders here on the site and perhaps this is something we can help with.

We have searched and found that there are servo connections on the board that would allow for communication, besides the need to run a second heater and thermistor, this is the only added requirement to run our head.

So I would like to open this to questions to sense what everyone is looking for.

Here is some links to the current setup.

http://www.dglass3d.com/?attachment_id=588

http://www.dglass3d.com/?attachment_id=586

 

[gr5 2,189]

How much does this head weigh? Currently the acceleration for X/Y axis is 5000mm/sec (in comparison I think the makerbot is more like 200mm/sec but I could be wrong). The main advantage of the UM over other printers is the light weight head.

 

[dglass3d 0]

The Ultimaker 2 uses a remote mount head correct? If so then we have components to make ours the bowden style extruder.

We are able to keep a modular style setup that can be easily altered to allow for quick changes and revisions.

As far as weight goes, our components weigh around 165 grams, where a single extruder weight is 110 grams, the big savings is only one stepper over two stepper motors, which is the heaviest component by far. Our nema 17 weighs 389 grams, though we are testing smaller motors to find more savings.

 

[am001 0]

It looks to me like it can't retract. This would pretty much eliminate it from use in a bowden setup as there is no way to remove the tension in the filament so it would dribble.

 

[dglass3d 0]

It looks to me like it can't retract. This would pretty much eliminate it from use in a bowden setup as there is no way to remove the tension in the filament so it would dribble.

 

Our design does full retraction like any other head on the market, fully adjustable via the Slic3r configuration.

 

[nick-foley 5]

How does the extruder retract the filament, say, 5mm, if reversing the stepper direction is what also causes the other filament to begin extrusion? Is there another actuator, not visible in the schematics, that is controlling which filament is being fed?

 

[dglass3d 0]

Our head uses a Linear rail that allows one gear or the other to be engaged. We use a servo operated latch mechanism to lock it into the appropriate side. I'll work on some better images to show this working as we have just changed our latch setup.

Basically the firmware controls the servo at tool changes, when T0 or T1 is called upon the servo moves allowing the latch to engage the other stop point and lock it into the active extruder.