3d printing purchasing for next year?
Past few years we have been dialing up our use of printed parts but relying on people with printers at home - possibly time to make the investment to get at least one ‘team’ printer.
Main contenders are Bambu X1 and Prusa MK4
- Budget wise, mk4 is more affordable
- ~1100 CAD for MK4, 1500CAD for X1
- Speed wise, X1 has a significant advantage on the top speed
- supposed new firmware coming out with prusa to make improvements?
- Customer support for MK4 is better
- Build volume is larger for X1
- X1: 256 × 256 × 256 mm
- MK4: 250 x 210 x 220 mm
No decision was made, will look at things again and discuss with more team members.
Quick update: input shaping has been fully released for MK4 which should help with speed
Integrating 3d printing into swerve wheels
Some teams have been looking at using ~95A TPU to print their swerve wheels using 3D Printing. Lots of discussing on CD about it here
Team 88 has been using Selective Laser Sintering to make their swerve wheels out of powder that is fused together, which has shown good success in the 2023 Charged Up season.
Other teams have been starting to use the more common Fused Deposition Modelling technique, which is what we have easy access to based on the printers that team members have.
Still have some reservations about delamination occurring as part of the layering from FDM modelling, as well as the resources that would need to be invested into getting this dialed in. Will keep an eye on the thread and maybe investigate again later (possibly starting with things like sushi rollers for an intake just to get practice printing with a more flexible filament)
Taegen