New Design and Prototype of 2-degree-of-freedom Planar Parallel Manipulator for Use In Creating an Infinite 3D Printer

A 3D printing is a rapidly growing and evolving field filled with a diverse array of printers capable of printing an equally as diverse amount of material. A new type of material extrusion 3D printer was recently developed and features the capabilities of printing infinitely long objects due to design decision of angling the XY plane and incorporating a rotating bed. The innovative design for the infinite 3D printer features a 2-DoF planar parallel manipulator (PPM) that will control the hot-end motion in the XY plane. This innovative design will greatly reduce the mass of moving parts in comparison to other infinite 3D printers. This reduction of weight will reduce inertia and allow for this new printer to achieve higher accelerations. In addition to the development of the new 3D printer, this paper presents a kinematic and dynamic model of the angled PPM, a finite element analysis of the critical components of the PPM, and an optimization approach to determine arm length of the PPM. The dynamic model simulation was developed in MATLAB and the results were compared with field data collected to verify the model. A meta-heuristic optimization was performed to optimize arm length of the connectors while maximizing the dynamic performance of the PPM with consideration of the usable workspace. The results of these examinations yield a validated mechanism that will be suitable for the development of a new type of infinite 3D printer.