EPlus3D

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Student Team Creates ‘PiBot’ Paste 3D Printer

Formnext Germany

Share this Article

It came about as a class assignment for Francis Bitonti and Xuedi Chen’s vertical studio at the Architecture School of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and the PiBot is pretty cool.

pi1Bitonti, a renowned architect, designer and researcher, and Chen, a Brooklyn-based designer and educator whose work spans industrial design, architecture, fashion, robotics and installation, challenged the students to take on the build and design process for their version of a 3D printer.

Students Nicholas Nord, Hiroki Sawai and Lauren Famularo were among the teams who took up the challenge from their instructors to build a paste extruding printer.Taking a Printrbot Simple Maker’s Edition unit and using the basic concepts behind that printer as their base to begin the work, they then looked to William Steele’s PiMaker for inspiration as well. What they came up with, the PiBot, is a flexible, dual extruder system which works in combination with a rotating, polar bed.

Their finished device allows them to print a single object with a combination of materials from a pair of extruders. As a bonus, the machine lets a user print two of the same object – at the same time – due to the rotating bed feature.

Nicholas Nord

Nicholas Nord

The PiMaker 3D Printer they used as inspiration utilizes Printrboard electronics to drive a circular build plate and dispenses with the standard cartesian coordinate system used by most other 3D printers. It’s that design that gives the PiMaker a very large build volume in relation to it’s modest chassis size. The PiMaker features an 11″ build platform and an 8″ height, but the build volume amounts to more than 650 cubic inches.

Using all the standard firmware and software of the Printrbot (with the exception of a single post processor script that does the polar conversion) the PiMaker does it’s business via a C# (Mono) script.

The PiBot designed by the student team can, unlike the PiMaker, print with paste materials from it’s dual syringe extruders.If you want to make your own PiBot, you can download all the necessary design files here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:536108. Are you impressed with the PiBot student project? Let us know in the ‘PiBot’ Paste Printer forum thread on 3DPB.com. Check out the video below of the machine in action.

pi2

Share this Article


Recent News

3D Printing News Briefs, September 30, 2023: Drone Customization, 3D Printed Bandage, & More

Space, 3D Printers, and Australian Ambition: The iLAuNCH Revolution Begins



Categories

3D Design

3D Printed Art

3D Printed Food

3D Printed Guns


You May Also Like

3D Printing News Unpeeled: BLT, M Holland & Tecnológico de Monterrey

BLT has announced its half year results for 2023 with $2.44 million in profit for the first half year up from a $5.34 million loss last year for the same period....

AML3D Makes C-Suite Changes & Ramps Up its Metal 3D Printing Sales in Support of US Navy

The board of AML3D, the Australian original equipment manufacturer (OEM) of metal additive manufacturing (AM) platforms, recently concluded a four month review of the company’s leadership structure, which has resulted...

3D Printing Webinar and Event Roundup: September 17, 2023

It’s another busy week filled with 3D printing webinars and events! Topics include photopolymers and industrial automation, aerospace and 3D scanning, DIGITAL FOAM and composite 3D printers, biomaterial bioinks, and...

3D Printing Webinar and Event Roundup: September 10, 2023

This might possibly be the longest webinar and event roundup we’ve ever done at 3DPrint.com—that’s how many offerings there are this week! I won’t waste your time in this introduction...