3D Printer / CNC head positioning ideas
Ideas to make high precision low cost head positioning systems for 3D printer / fabricators / CNC machines. Precision stepper motors are expensive. What if you could use cheap analog motor? They could be very fast and cheap.
Electrical Resistance
Run a length of wire along each axis of the printer / fabricator / CNC and measure the resistance at the head position. Using a table of actual resistance measurements on the device could increase accuracy and even heat differences could be taken into account. This could be extremely accurate and low cost.
Optical
Optical is another approach, this is how mechanical mice and mane printers function. Using a digital camera with distance measurements on a scale printed from a long format printer could make the device very fast and accurate. Using optics the accuracy could increased fine precision even with cheap webcam sensors.
RF Triangulation
Mounting an RF transmitter on the head and antennas at the corners of the tracks could allow triangulation of the head to extremely high precision even over very large distances. This is the same technique used by GPS and cell phone towers. The precisions scales with size and frequency transmitted.
Electrical Balancing
Using opposing electrical currents to create a balance for any location along the rail. With the correct calibration this can be very accurate plus provide very fast movement.
Electric Drag Racer Sets Records
Plugin electric car beats gasoline muscle cars at drag racing. White Zombie set records with simple lead acid batteries.
The fact this car was setting speed records using simple, reliable, cheap, lead acid batteries is the major innovation. The definition of innovation is:
Profitably satisfy unmet desires
Profitably doesn’t necessarily mean money, it means all the desires are better satisfied for everyone involved in delivering the innovation. So far plugin electric cars fail to innovate as normal passenger cars because the range is less than gasoline, diesel, or natural gas cars. Driving very fast for short distances is a way for plugin electrics to innovate. Electric cars have more torque from the start than internal combustion engines, this makes them very fast off the line.
Finding a special use for a new technology is part of the evolution to a new paradigm. In the beginning internal combustion engines had severe limitations but eventually outperformed the previous technology in every way and even made new things possible. Airplanes became possible because of internal combustion engines.
Electric vehicles have a large amount of torque, are quiet, and don’t any toxic exhaust fumes while operating. This makes electric vehicles ideal for use indoors especially hi-lo to move heavy items in a warehouse. Electric vehicles work well indoors because they don’t need to travel far and can be recharged in between uses. This has been how plugin electric vehicles have been used for decades. The other use is for golf carts. Again, a golf cart has limited range and is quiet which is perfect for a golf course.
Mapping the steps from current technology and uses to the replacement and new possibilities reveals the lowest risk, highest profit innovations.
Aquapod Emergency Water Storage
Aquapod Emergency Water Storage is a low cost way to safely store 65 gallons of clean water, a 14 day supply for a family of four.
http://www.aquapodkit.com/index.html
Not exactly an overlooked innovation since the plastic technology to make this cheap is fairly new. This does use an existing resource, the bath tub, to provide the strength to store the water which weight 520 lbs (236 kg). Using the bathtub this way allows the Aquapod to be much thinner plastic and thus lower cost. It also uses a space which won’t be used during an emergency. If the water is not running the bath tub won’t be used so storing water there does not take up extra space. Furthermore it uses the readily available supply from the faucet, assuming to have time to prepare for an outage. The kit comes with a hand pump making it perfect for use when power is out.
Predictive Innovation Training
Predictive Innovation: Core Skills Book
RoundSquareTriangle.com