YellowPrinter 3D FDM printer

YellowPrinter is the machine designed for people who value precision and attention to the smallest details. It is an uncompromising 3D printer that can cope with the most difficult tasks. It was created for the low-volume production of plastic prototypes and its main advantage is the use of a ventilated and filtered heating chamber. Thanks to this it’s possible to easily print elements from materials such as ABS or Nylon, which are characterized by a relatively high temperature shrinkage. The construction of the machine is designed in such a way that two spools of material can fit inside the chamber in which the details are printed. As a result, they will not absorb moisture or pollutants from the air, which often makes 3d printing more difficult. Maintaining constant printing parameters would be much harder without chamber. The printing area will be: 260mm width, 310mm depth and 240mm high. Printer footprint with chamber will be: 520mm width, 520mm depth and 775mm high.

In my publications, I will try to present you in details the YellowPrinter and goals behind the project. We will look at features that distinguishes it from the competition and what you gain by deciding to build it. In the near future, I’m planning to make all the documentation available on our website. You will be able to start assembling your own YellowPrinter very soon 🙂 I also want to make KITs of this printer available for you in the future. It all depends from your interest of the project.

Lets start assembling process

Today’s part of the presentation will be focused on the YellowPrinter main frame. This is traditional CoreXY kinematic style 3d printer, so frame geometry is very important. It is one of those units that directly translates into the precision of printed details. It must ensure high rigidity of the structure during printing. What is not so obvious, maintaining geometry in accordance with the design is not so easy, and many designers trying to make their printer more cost efficient, are skipping some necessary elements that define right geometry f the frame. In YellowPrinter design I didn’t skip them 🙂

The structural basis are aluminum V-Slot profiles with a cross-section of 20mm x 40mm and 20mm x 20xmm. Many printer manufacturers choose this type of profiles to build their machines because, no need to cheat, it is one of the simplest, most accessible and economical methods for building frames. In 3D printers there are no cutting forces, as is the case with CNC milling machines, so theoretically speaking, the supporting structure will transmit relatively small forces and torsional moments. With this in mind, the use of V-Slot profiles has great justification in the form of relatively low production costs and simplicity of assembly. However, many companies forget that such structures require special attention during assembly. Maintaining the correct distances and angles is key to achie high printing accuracy. Their savings cause that these parameters are disturbed and the end result is far from the intended.

YellowPrinter, for the assembly of V-Slot profiles, uses two types of retainers that always work in tandem. The first element is an aluminum angle bracket, which sets the right angle between the profiles, and the second one – an aluminum plate, which fixes the profile in one common planes. It is imperative that such elements always appear in pairs, as none of them can replace the other. Many manufacturers forget about it, which makes the correct installation of printers frames more difficult than it should be and the end result is poor. Their printers can lose geometry during operation, during fast movements of the carriage, when there are high accelerations, and thus the forces exerted on the frame.

YellowPrinter will be equipped with the so-called kinematically-coupled heatbed– a heating bed with 3 axes of freedom. In addition to the standard Z axis, which allows it to move vertically, there are two additional rotational degrees of freedom. Thanks to this, it is possible to auto-level the printing bed and the so-called nonplanar 3D printing, which you will be able to read about on our blog in the future.

This type of kinematic system of the heating bed requires the use of 3 separate stepper motors, which together will control the 3 degrees of freedom of the table. To ensure the perfect geometry during such movement, YellowPrinter uses 3 linear guides MGN15, which are characterized by precision and smoothness of movement.

The MGN15 linear guides were also used on the X and Y axes, placed in such a way as to ensure the largest possible working area in the absence of collisions with the housing or insulation elements. You can visit website below to download files necessary for printing special tools for the correct positioning of rails during assembly. Thanks to them, you will be sure that the assembly is made correctly and the geometry is maintained.

To conclude this brief description, the outline of the frame assembly is 500mm x 500mm x 500mm. For assembly, I used M5 screws with T-Nuts to facilitate the assembly process. Stainless steel screws M3 are used to install the linear rails.

The frame also has a place for the TPFE tube pass, in which the filament will move. It’s done just for space savings.

I would like to invite you to follow the entries on my blog, where I will share with you the next stages of YellowPrinter assembly. What do you think about this project? What are your first impressions? I am always happy to answer your questions 🙂

In next publication I’ll share with you more details about equipment. See you soon