Hello, i am a student from Saxion. Recently we started a search report about applying YUMI robotic technology into 3D printing manufacturing process. i am still pretty confused here. so i have a question for all the 3D printer experts here. Which 3D manufacturing process do you think Yumi could help? Thank you in advance!!!
YuMi could likely be applied to quite a few forms of 3D printing, assuming you’re able to mount both an extrusion head and a laser to it. It wouldn’t be too far-fetched to see it extruding, nor to see it using a laser to draw on a vat of resin. Extrusion would probably be the easiest to work with, considering how far development has already come.
That being said, while I’m not trying to discourage your studies, I’m not sure applying such a complex robotic system to current methods 3D printing is ideal. The only reason current technologies have made it so far are because they’re simple, both to build and understand, and yet already work well enough. Our Cartesian bots move quite efficiently in 2 axes, and the third axis (the Z) doesn’t actually need to be very efficient due to the layer-by-layer printing process; our Delta bots already move very efficiently in all three axes. I can’t see any benefit to applying a fully articulated system such as YuMi to current 3-axis printing, but the added layer of complexity would likely prove too much for the majority of users.
One angle you could take with this is the possibility of multiple-axis 3D printing. I already saw a video of something similar a while back, but basically, YuMi has the potential of building on the side of or underneath printed surfaces instead of current FDM which can only build straight up. It could allow for some more intricate or otherwise impossible geometries to be printed.
Good luck on your research!
-Karl
thanks Karl! That’s really helping me to understand more! is it possible to apply YUMI into assemblig the machine itself in your opinion , like assembling the engine of 3D printer?
thanks a lot!
keting
It’s a possibility, of course. In the scope of consumer 3D printing, there are quite a few barriers you would need to overcome: a large part of what makes the various Repraps and other printers that look like they were built on garages out of scrap parts work so well is because they were tuned and built so carefully by hand. There are things that go into printers that require the instincts of the builder to do properly, such as (just off the top of my head) how much to tension the X belt on a Prusa i3 to ensure minimal backlash but avoid warping the Z rods. The fact that no two printers are ever exactly the same makes that problem worse. While it’s not impossible to compensate for that in software, I imagine it would be extremely difficult and likely wouldn’t achieve the same results. Of course, it would be a much more probable idea to just have the YuMi build maybe the frame and some of the motion elements, and have a human finish it up the calibration-related elements by hand.
