this post was submitted on 10 Jan 2024
81 points (91.8% liked)

3DPrinting

15378 readers
185 users here now

3DPrinting is a place where makers of all skill levels and walks of life can learn about and discuss 3D printing and development of 3D printed parts and devices.

The r/functionalprint community is now located at: !functionalprint@kbin.social or !functionalprint@fedia.io

There are CAD communities available at: !cad@lemmy.world or !freecad@lemmy.ml

Rules

If you need an easy way to host pictures, https://catbox.moe may be an option. Be ethical about what you post and donate if you are able or use this a lot. It is just an individual hosting content, not a company. The image embedding syntax for Lemmy is ![](URL)

Moderation policy: Light, mostly invisible

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

Why are 3D printers still stuck on stepper motors? Why haven't we transitioned to servo motors with encoder feedback for positioning?

Is it just too cost prohibitive for the consumer-level? We would be able to print a lot faster and more accurately if we had position feedback on the axes. Instead we just rely blindly on the stepper not skipping any steps when we tell it to move, hoping for the best.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] curiousPJ@lemmy.world 4 points 8 months ago (13 children)

Steppers have a higher precision to a servos higher speed and torque (but torque that’s not constant.)

Just trying to understand this. Then how come all CNC precision machines use a servo instead of a stepper? I mean there are some ridiculously accurate machines that can position itself over and over varying under a micron (<.001mm) but the manufacturers choose servo over stepper. Is it for the sake of holding torque that servos have to be used over steppers?

[–] ShepherdPie@midwest.social 11 points 8 months ago (12 children)

All the DIY CNC machines I've seen use larger stepper motors. The commercial CNC machines I've seen can cost $10,000 to hundreds of thousands.

[–] DreadPotato@sopuli.xyz -2 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (9 children)

That's actually exactly my point, steppers are objectively inferior to servos when it comes to dynamic positioning (which is what 3D printing is), but servos are too expensive compared to performance gains for hobbyists.

Which makes them superior, which is why they are used. Cost can't be ignored any more than the torque or speed, speccing parts that are considerably more expensive that achieve equivalent results is bad engineering unless you have a very specific application that requires it.

If it was 'objectively inferior' we wouldn't use them. You build to your requirements, not by playing top trumps with competing technologies while ignoring the cost.

load more comments (8 replies)
load more comments (10 replies)
load more comments (10 replies)