Has anyone experimented with a system such as that used in 2d printers where a polymer strip with markings on is used to determine the axis position optically as the carriage moves? It would seem a logical forward direction, picking up on a previous thread about homing and resuming printing, for 3d printers to be able to derive some feedback as they print about where the carriage is, this would account for missed motor steps and improve positional accuracy in large or prolonger prints?
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you are talking about a closed loop system, these types of Closed loop system are very commonly used in CMM equipment and super high precision Milling/Grinding machines, most commonly they would use a type of glass scale. I would say unless you are after accuracies greater then 0.005mm then they are not required, as they add cost.
if you are missing motor steps then you have a very serious problem! and a closed loop system wont allow for it until after the error has occurred and made a mess of your job, so either way you would have to resolve the motor problem.
However if you are talking of super precision (Better than 0.005mm) and trying to advance over all accuracy of 3D printing, then it is worth investigating. but when you get down to those accuracies you have to start thinking about surface finish as part of the in-accuracy. so we would be talking layer height of better than 0.01mm to achieve a Surface finish of 10.Ra, or better, in order to bring improved accuracies.
Things start to get complicated when trying to achieve very high accuracies…lol
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Thanks for the info, and no I’m having any issues with motors, I just wondered since this type of thing seems common on garden variety 2d printers why it is not something I’ve seen on 3d printers. Cost is a good reason, and if it unnecessary to achieve the accuracy we require then I have my answer.
Thank you that’s very interesting.
