3D printer parts list

3D Printing Concepts and 3D Printer Parts

3D Printer Parts

Extruders

Extruders are a crucial component in 3D printers. In simple terms, the extruder is the tool that holds the filament in place and controls the amount that is fed into a Hot-end.  One key point is to highlight that hot-ends are not the same as an extruder, but rather they are attached to it and they are the main location that is tasked with the melting process.

Extruders come with a stepper motor that allows for the filament to be fed through. Additionally, some form of gearing and hobbed shaft to hold the filament in place, a fan in some cases, a heat sink for better temperature regulation and finally the hot end.

Extruders can come as a dual setup or a single extruder. Dual extruders give the option of printing with a support material that is used to hold up certain designs which may require it due to the complexity of the object. Additionally, a dual extruder system can be independent or dependent. This means that with a independent system, you have the additional option of being able to print with multiple materials within a single object and not just being able to print with support material which is only available with standard dual extrusion systems. There are two types of extruders that are used in the 3D printing industry. These are Direct Extruders and Bowden. The main difference between the two is that in Direct Extruders, the motor that drives the filament and the hot end are directly attached to the extruder body. Bowden on the other hand includes a separation tube between the extruder and hot end, where the extruder, including the motor and other components can be attached to the printer chassis.

Each type has its own drawbacks and benefits.

Direct Drive:

Advantage: Can print with a wider variety of materials because the hot end and extruder are close to each other.This leads to better control with the extrusion process.

Disadvantage: Because both parts are attached, this leads to issues when printing at high speeds since the overall mass is higher.

Bowden A:

Advantage: Lower issues due to less mass needing to be moved.

Disadvantage: Problems with printing with certain filaments like flexible materials.

Print bed

A print bed is the part that the 3d printed object rests on during the printing process.  As each layer is extruded, the print bed moves down to allow for the next layering step. Although being simple, a print bed is an important part of a 3D printer. Although a relatively easy process, 3d printing does require some careful calibration to ensure that you get a perfect print without deformities. Therefore, the most important step is to ensure that you print the first layer accurately.

The first layer is important because any mistakes in this layer will be magnified to the overall structure of the intended part. The first layer indicates if the print bed is levelled correctly, it indicates that you have the correct extrusion settings such as amount, temperature and more.

A print bed should provide sufficient adhesion to the molten material, ensuring the object adheres to the bed. This is key because the extruders are moving components and if the plastic doesn’t properly attach to the bed, the movement will create many issues to the first layer as it cools. Additionally, due to cooling, the plastic can deform which is known as warping, by peeling away from the bed floor.

Which type of print Bed?

Print beds can come in a number of materials but the two most common are aluminium and glass. These both offer a smooth surface for the object to rest on, however because of the surface, this can cause adhesion issues. To combat this, print beds can come heated or a user can apply a gluing agent to help with bed adhesion which is strong enough to hold the object, but also allow for easier removal once printed.

Gluing agents come in various forms, from a standard glue stick, hairspray and special sheets you attach on to the print bed. These options are all relatively cheap and it is recommended to always use some form of agent to reduce issues that can occur.

Heated print beds reduce the chance of the object warping since they provide heat to the first layer, ensuring no random pockets cool faster than others. Aluminium beds offer the most uniform heat distribution, but aluminium itself expands significantly as its temperature increases which can cause problems. Glass on the other hand doesn’t expand easily but it doesn’t offer the same temperature distribution meaning some areas are cooler than others. One way to circumvent these potential issues is to use a print bed with both materials, where the aluminium rests below the glass, providing uniform heat through out the glass plate, which doesn’t expand as much as the aluminium.

Hot Ends

A hot end is where the filament is melted then extruded through a nozzle. Hot ends come in many forms but the standard ones consist of a feed tube, a heatsink, thermal barrier tube with a heat-break, heat-block and the nozzle in that order.

The feed tube guides the filament from the extruder, down through the heatsink and thermal barrier tube. The purpose of the heat sink and thermal barrier tube is twofold. The top most part of the thermal barrier tube is located within the heatsink and feeds the filament through. The bottom section of the thermal barrier tube is connected to the heat block where the filament is melted. Just before it however, the thermal tube is thinner and this area is called the heat-break. This is all done to ensure that before the filament reaches the heat block, that the temperature is lower, prevent melting of the filament before it reaches the heat block by a process called heat creep. The heat-break creates a sudden change in temperature so as to better have control of the melting process. 

Enclosure

An enclosure is having a sealed off printing environment for the 3D printing process. The reasoning for this is for safety but also to create better temperature management to ensure better printing results. Due to the nature of utilising high-temperature processes, issues with overheating plastics can create fumes on select printing materials, such as ABS. An enclosure ensures you have less particles in the air, but additionally, a printer can include a HEPA filter that can reduce these dangerous particles and allow the printer to be used safely in for example in an office environment.

Furthermore, an enclosure ensures that the internal ambient temperature of the printer is stable which plays a major roll in reducing printing issues such as warping and cracking.

Filament

A filament in the context of Filament Fused Fabrication (Fused Deposition Modelling) is a coil of thermoplastic or a composite that comes in various diameters. The filament is fed through the printer and then into the extruders where it is melted then extruded. Unlike other 3D printing techniques, the filament is solid and cost-effective for many organisations. Additionally, it is the safest printing 3d printing technique which is a major factor in its popularity.

Materials that are available are various plastics, like PLA, PETG and composites where plastic is mixed in with other materials like wood to allow for a variety of possible 3D printing parts. FFF has the largest selection of materials and each year, more materials are added to the roster. This gives FDM a greater edge than other 3D printing techniques in terms of versatility. However large the selection of materials, currently there isn’t a major metal filament available and the ones that are available require extra steps like sintering to finish a metal 3d printed part.

3D Printing Process

Layer height

Layer height is the thickness of each 3D printed layer of an object. This can also be called the Z Resolution which is referring to the process of creating each layer as the print bed moves down to allows for another layer.

A smaller layer height yields better quality objects with stronger strength properties. This is due to better interlayer adhesion, reducing gaps and creating a smoother overall finish for the object. This is most apparent when printing curves, where you can see the stepping of the edges.

Smaller layer heights however require more printing time, therefore the selection showed have careful thought before the printing process begins.

Print Speed

Print speed refers the traveling speed of the extruders as they travel during the printing process. It is express in mm/s and also determines the print quality of an object. A balance must be met in terms of print speed when making adjustment before the printing process because it does affect other settings. For example, faster speed will require more temperature awareness since increasing the speed will usually reduce the quality of the print. As a side note, we must not confuse print speed with travel speed, which is the speed at which the extruders when not directing printing.

Software Terms

Slicer

Slicing software is a category of 3D printing software that is used to convert a basic 3D computer object into something that the printer can understand and print accurately. There are various options of slicing software but they all work with the same output. They can take a 3D object, convert the surface into miniature triangles, that come together to make the object. The amount of these triangles also determines the accuracy and detail in the 3D object that can be printed.  Within the application, you can get detail controls about the printer, how to print the object, orientation, material settings and all settings possible for the 3D printer.

After setting the desired parameters, the slicer software can then slice the 3D object into the desired layer height and visualized the printing process. When this is completed, the object file is then converted into G-code, which a data type used in many manufacturing processes that stores information about how to print or in the case of CNC machine, how to mill an object. This G-code is what drives the extruders in the 3D printer to accurately create the object.

Infill

Slicing software gives you the option to print a fully solid object, or a hollow one and everything in-between. This is accomplished through setting the infill amount. This is usually how the internal structure of an object is to be printed and the settings range from 5% infill to 100%. Furthermore, you get four main infill pattern types which are honeycomb, wiggle, rectangle and triangular.

Honeycomb offers the greatest strength with minimum material, triangle offers better lateral load strength, which gives the outer shell of the object better strength to handle horizontal forces applied to the object. Wiggle is mainly used for flexible materials and rectangular doesn’t have any specific advantages.

Skirts and Brims

Brims, skirts and rafts are parts that at are used to create better bed adhesion for the 3D printed object before the printing process and to check that everything is set-up correctly.

A skirt is an outline of the print area of the object, but doesn’t directly touch the object. It is used as a primer, to check whether there is excess material in the nozzles, that they are calibrated correctly and to ensure consistent material flow.

A brim is directly attached to the object, but goes a little further out and involves more outlines than the skirt. Its main purpose is to hold the object and to ensure the first layer is printed correctly.

Common Troubleshooting Terms

Warping

Warping can be described as the shrinkage of a 3D printed object at the corners of the base, mainly attributed to temperature changes. Warping is due to the process of non-uniform cooling where certain printing layers cool faster than the heated parts. When this occurs, the cooler layers end up distorting the objects geometry since cooling causes shrinkage and this action affects the immediate molten layers. As the areas cool and harden, they pull on other layers as cooling increases. The main reason for warping is heated thermoplastics need uniformed cooling after being extruded to allow an object to accurately settle while maintaining the desired geometry. If the printing bed is not heated or the ambient temperature of the print chamber is not modulated then this leads to different cooling rates. To prevent warping issues, ensure that the FFF 3d printer has a heated bed with a metal plate. This distributes the heat throughout the bed and means a more uniformed temperature distribution. This will minimize the effects of warping in the first layers of the object.

Cracking

Cracking is caused by the same issue as warping, being the non-uniform cooling of a printed object. The difference of cracking from warping is cracking occurs at different locations in the printed object. To offset the possibility of cracking, a printer with an enclosure allows to eliminate the ambient temperature fluctuations that may occur that could lead to cracking of a 3D printed object.

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3D Printer Parts: Complete List of 3D Printing Components

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3D printers are becoming popular with time. Some prefer to buy the fully assembled machines while few like to explore a little more with DIY 3D printers.

While working with DIY machines, the most exciting part is exploring the different 3D printer parts that make it such a powerful technology. Though it is difficult at times to complete the assembly in few hours, the experience does provide a lot of know-how about the 3D printer anatomy.

By learning about the parts, one gets better understanding of the working of 3D printers. Hence, can utilize the knowledge later when actually printing with the machine.

One can even solve minor to major problems such a nozzle jam and many others, when familiar with the inside out of these 3D printers.

In short, if users are looking forward to a strong career in 3D printing, the right way would be start with the different parts that make up for the most revolutionary technology.

List of Major 3D Printer Parts

3D printers are complex, however, when examined closely, they can be made super easy to understand and work with. The first step must be to check out the 3D printer parts list.

These components of 3D printers help accomplish tasks from printing smaller to larger parts with ease. The list here contains the component of cartesian printers which are recommended for beginners.

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MotherBoard or Controller Board

The motherboard which is also known as mainboard or control board. As the name suggests, this component is responsible for maintaining the smooth processing of the machine.

Being responsible for all the fundamental operations, motherboard works as the brain of the 3D printers. It directs the motion components as per the instructions sent from a computer and at the same time, interprets signals from the sensors.

You must have guessed how crucial it is to have a great quality controller board for achieving high performance from a 3D printer. Even if you put every best part in your machine, while ignoring the controller board, your 3D printer would be worthless.

Frame

Frame helps keep all the other components of your 3D printer together at one place. It also maintains the stability of the entire machine. If your frame is robust, you will have a more durable 3D printer.

Companies use different materials and the most common ones are the metal and acrylic. In old days, wood was used for the frame of the consumer 3D printers.

However, to maintain the highest stability, one must choose the metal body. These printers aren’t always expensive as well.

For example, Monoprice offers budget 3D printers under $300 with aluminium frame. Yes, you heard it right. With limited budget, you can still own a metal frame 3D printer.

When talking about frames, the open and closed frame designs also make a difference. A closed frame offers better results by maintaining consistent temperature around the print space. There are few printers that also offer semi-enclosed frames.

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Print Material

Filament is used for the FDM 3D printers. Filaments are available in spools. These are heated to certain temperature and are liquified to be deposited on the print bed.

This happens in layers. The objects created by 3D printers are made of these filaments. There are many types of filaments used for 3D printing. And, each one of them have different properties. They have their own advantages and limitations.

When getting a printer, one must take care of the compatibility with different filaments. Not all printers allow multiple filament compatibility.

Some can process only one kind of filaments, mostly PLA. And, others can work with multiple choices of filaments including PLA, ABS and many others.

There are other 3D printers that only accept the proprietary filaments. Hence, you must be aware of your 3D printing needs before opting for a 3D Printer and the filaments it supports.

Motion Controllers

You must know that the 3D printers, as the name suggests works along the three axes. Motion controllers receive instructions from the mother board about the movement they must make, while they are the ones who perform the actual movements.

• Belts: The belts connected to motors are responsible for moving X-axis and Y-axis. The movement happens from side to side. This movement does affect the print speed and precision, hence are very crucial for the attaining best results. One must ensure that the belts aren’t loose or the print may ruin. For this, one can use tensioners.
• Stepper Motors: These are responsible for the mechanical movement of the device and are controlled by Stepper driver. These motors connect with X, Y as well as Z axis. These motors help in driving the print head, print bed, along with the leadscrews. Because the rotations are made in steps, they are called Stepper motors.
• Threaded rods: Threaded rods are connected to the stepper motors. With the movement of threaded rods, the print head moves in upward and downward directions. In few 3D printers, the print bed movement also relies on threaded rods. So, the Z axis movement is dependent on Threaded rods. Although these could be used for the movement along the X and Y axis, being expensive, majority of the printers use belts. Belts are faster and lighter alongside being cheap.
• End Stops: End stops ensure that the end points are marked along the three axes when the movement of components take place. It identifies the range of movement of each component.

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PSU

PSU, abbreviated as Power Supply Unit helps in supplying power for a smooth operation of 3D printer. You can find the PSU mounted on the frame. Or, it can also be available separately along with another controller box. However, mounted one provides compact look and occupies less space.

PSU strength would decide what temperature your 3D printer is capable of working with. For advanced materials, one must choose the one with higher temperature range allowance.

Print Bed

Mostly, anyone who has worked with 3D printer would know what a print bed is. This is the component where the models are created.

The filaments are deposited on the print bed, one layer at a time for building the entire object. One of the major 3D printer parts that does decide the quality and surface finish of the printed object.

Different 3D Printers boasts different kinds of print bed. You can find heated as well as non-heated print beds. A non heated print bed may be enough for PLA, however, for advanced filaments, heated beds are recommended. These helps in enhancing adhesion and stability for first layer of the print.

Also, the print beds are designed using different materials. For example, aluminium and glass print beds. Both have its own benefits and limitations. Aluminium print beds heat up faster and glass print beds, being flatter, provides better finish and are easy to maintain as well.

Some 3D printers offer automatic calibration of print beds. However, users need to level the bed manually in some.

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Extruder

The extruder, also known as print head extrudes the filament and deposit it on the print bed. The extruder can be categorized in two sections. One is called the cold end while the other is known as the hot end.

The job of the cold end is to lock the filament while pushing it gradually downwards to the hot end.

The hot end that has a nozzle attached to it at the end, maintains a high temperature greater than the melting point of the filament. The hot end melts the filament which is further deposited on the print bed.

The extruder itself is made of different parts.

• The Filament Drive Gear: Also known as extruder drive gear is responsible for pushing the filament into the hot end.
• The Heat Sink: The heat sink along with the heat Sink Fan ensures that the material is still in solid state until it reaches the nozzle.
• The Heater Cartridge: This is the component that works to heat up the filament.
• The Thermocouple: To maintain the right temperature, the extruder uses a temperature sensor. This is used for the hot end.
• The Cooling Fan: Once the melted filament is deposited, it must be cooled down for setting before the next layer gets deposited. The job of the cooling fan is to ensure the same.
• Nozzle: This forms the tip of the extruder. The filament is melted and it comes out of the nozzle for deposition. There are different sizes of nozzles that the printers use. 0.4 mm is the most common one. By keeping the smaller diameter of nozzle, one can achieve finer details with greater accuracy. And, larger nozzle helps in printing at a higher speed.

Some 3D printers are equipped with dual extruders as well. With a dual extruder, one can print simultaneously with two different filaments. Dual extruders have two kinds of setup. Either both the nozzles are included in one print head or connected with two different print heads.

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Feeder System

There are two most common feeder system used in 3D printers: Bowden feeder system and Direct feeder system. In a Bowden setup, there are different locations for cold and hot ends.

While a filament tube is used to direct the filament towards the hot end. This setup can dramatically increase the print speed as the extruder becomes lighter.

When talking about the direct setup, the cold end and the hot end are directly connected. The direct feeder system is most common among the users who work with flexible filaments.

Connectivity

When it comes to connectivity with other device, 3D printers differ a lot. Some provide only the ethernet or USB port for connection. However, many new 3D printers are now available with Wi-Fi setup as well.

The interface can also help connect the mobile phone or laptop through Wi-Fi connection to your 3D printer. The file transfer can also be done using any of the three options.

For a standalone experience, many 3D printers also come with SD card slots. These slots are used for file transfer while the printer works without a need for any other device.

User Interface

These days, most of the 3D printers, even the budget ones, comes with an LCD user interface. With the help of this interface, one can control the printer settings without a need for computer.

Hence, these machines can work as standalone machines. The majority of the 3D printer has a mounted interface. However, you may find some models with separate controller box including the LCD interface.

This interface can help check and set the machine parameters. You can also use this interface to initiate the loading or unloading of filament. Moreover, an auto-leveling system can be initialized with the help of this small screen on the 3D printer.

The Conclusion

The 3D printing technology is growing with leaps and bounds. Doesn’t matter if are from a technical background or a non-technical one. Users can definitely learn to operate 3D printers because of all the help available online.

And, to know a little more than what others know, would certainly put you in a better place. So, why not start with the components of 3D printers?

3D printers are housed with many smaller and larger parts. Every part has their own role to play. Some tackles the movement while some work for accuracy various other important jobs.

These parts work in conjugation to provide a stable and uniform precision. The objects printed with a 3D printer bear varying properties and quality, depending on the difference in these parts and components.

However, all of these components have equal share when it comes to the operation of the 3D printers. Knowing about these 3D printer parts is a great way to start the journey towards 3D printing.

Who knows, you can someday, be able to create your own 3D printer. Possibilities are endless and when basics are strong, one can dream for higher goals.

Building a home 3D printer with your own hands: recommendations from personal experience

3D printing and assembly of 3D printers is my hobby and passion. Here I will not share detailed diagrams and drawings, there are more than enough of them on specialized resources. The main goal of this material is to tell you where to start, where to dig and how to avoid mistakes in the process of assembling a home 3D printer. Perhaps one of the readers will be inspired by applied engineering achievements.

Why do you need a 3D printer? Use cases

I first came across the idea of ​​3D printing back in the 90s when I was watching the Star Trek series. I remember how impressed I was by the moment when the heroes of the cult series printed the things they needed during their journey right on board their starship. They printed anything: from shoes to tools. I thought it would be great someday to have such a thing too. Then it all seemed something incredible. Outside the window are the gloomy 90s, and the Nokia with a monochrome screen was the pinnacle of progress, accessible only to a select few. nine0003

Years passed, everything changed. Around 2010, the first working models of 3D printers began to appear on sale. Yesterday's fantasy has become a reality. However, the cost of such solutions, to put it mildly, discouraged. But the IT industry would not be itself without an inquisitive community, where there is an active exchange of knowledge and experience and who just let them dig into the brains and giblets of new hardware and software. So, drawings and diagrams of printers began to surface more and more often on the Web. Today, the most informative and voluminous resource on the topic of assembling 3D printers is RepRap - this is a huge knowledge base that contains detailed guides for creating a wide variety of models of these machines. nine0003

I assembled the first printer about five years ago. My personal motivation to build my own device is quite prosaic and based on several factors. Firstly, there was an opportunity to try to realize the old dream of having your own device, inspired by a fantasy series. The second factor is that sometimes it was necessary to repair some household items (for example, a baby stroller, car elements, household appliances and other small things), but the necessary parts could not be found. Well, the third aspect of the application is "near-working". On the printer, I make cases for various IoT devices that I assemble at home. nine0003

Agree, it is better to place your device based on Raspberry Pi or Arduino in an aesthetically pleasing "body", which is not a shame to put in an apartment or take to the office, than to organize components, for example, in a plastic bowl for food. And yes, you can print parts to build other printers :)

There are a lot of scenarios for using 3D printers. I think everyone can find something of their own.

A complex part in terms of drawing that I printed on my printer. Yes, it's just a figurine, but it has many small elements

Ready solution vs custom assembly

When a technology has been tested, its value in the market decreases markedly. The same thing happened in the world of 3D printers. If earlier a ready-made solution cost simply sky-high money, then today acquiring such a machine is more humane for the wallet, but nevertheless not the most affordable for an enthusiast. There are a number of solutions already assembled and ready for home use on the market, their price range ranges from $500-700 (not the best options) to infinity (adequate solutions start from a price tag of about $1000). Yes, there are options for $150, but we, for understandable, I hope, reasons, will not dwell on them. nine0003

In short, there are three cases to consider a finished assembly:

• when you plan to print not much and rarely;
• when print accuracy is critical;
• you need to print molds for mass production of parts.

There are several obvious advantages to self-assembly. The first and most important is cost. Buying all the necessary components will cost you a maximum of a couple of hundred dollars. In return, you will receive a complete 3D printing solution with the quality of manufactured products acceptable for domestic needs. The second advantage is that by assembling the printer yourself, you will understand the principles of its design and operation. Believe me, this knowledge will be useful to you during the operation of even an expensive ready-made solution - any 3D printer needs to be serviced regularly, and it can be difficult to do this without understanding the basics. nine0003

The main disadvantage of assembly is the need for a large amount of time. I spent about 150 hours on my first build.

What you need to assemble the printer yourself

The most important thing here is the presence of desire. As for any special skills, then, by and large, in order to assemble your first printer, the ability to solder or write code is not critical. Of course, understanding the basics of radio electronics and basic skills in the field of mechanics (that is, "straight hands") will greatly simplify the task and reduce the amount of time that needs to be spent on assembly. nine0003

Also, to start we need a mandatory set of parts:

• Extruder is the element that is directly responsible for printing, the print head. There are many options on the market, but for a budget build, I recommend the MK8. Of the minuses: it will not be possible to print with plastics that require high temperatures, there is noticeable overheating during intensive work, which can damage the element. If the budget allows, then you can look at MK10 - all the minuses are taken into account there. nine0032
• Processor board. The familiar Arduino Mega is well suited. I didn't notice any downsides to this solution, but you can spend a couple of dollars more and get something more powerful, with a reserve for the future.
• Control board. I'm using RAMPS 1.4 which works great with the Arduino Mega. A more expensive but more reliable board is Shield, which already combines a processor board and a control board. In modern realities, I recommend paying attention to it. In addition to it, you need to purchase at least 5 microstep stepper motor controllers, for example - A4988. And it's better to have a couple of these in stock for replacement.
• Heated table. This is the part where the printed element will be located. Heating is necessary due to the fact that most plastics will not adhere to a cold surface. For example, for printing with PLA plastic, the required surface temperature of the table is 60-80°C, for ABS - 110-130°C, and for polycarbonate it will be even higher
  There are also two options for choosing a table - cheaper and more expensive. Cheaper options are essentially printed circuit boards with preheated wiring. To operate on this type of table, you will need to put borosilicate glass, which will scratch and crack during operation. Therefore, the best solution is an aluminum table. nine0032
• Stepper motors. Most models, including the i2 and i3, use NEMA 17 size motors, two for the Z axis and one each for the X and Y axes. Finished extruders usually come with their own stepper motor. It is better to take powerful motors with a current in the motor winding of 1A or more, so that there is enough power to lift the extruder and print without skipping steps at high speed.
• Basic set of plastic fasteners.
• Belt and gears to drive it. nine0051