RE: Sanders Prototype ?

Dave:

My firm has had several generations of this machine series over the last 10
years or so. It is a wax printer, basically. It makes 3D models in a special
green wax and surrounds the model in a water soluble red wax used for
support.

It uses ink-jet technology, sort of. I think old man Sanders was one of the
inventors that started Calcomp plotters ages ago. Anyway, the waxes are
heated in a tank and pumped through heated flex tubes to printing jets. Both
jets are moved on a gantry type setup in x and y directions.

These machines were always a nightmare to keep running. The jets broke on a
regular basis and cost over $1000 to get replacements. Our last machine used
to clog the safety valve on the pressurized tank and blow hot
hyper-expensive wax all over the room. This happened frequently. Thank
goodness we had a maintenance contract. Also, there didn't seem to be a
strain relief on any electronic connector anywhere and we spent many hours
tracing down broken wires. No wonder they went under.

But they were the highest res machines of their day. Too bad they did not
develop new technology. Objet, Invision and others now can make better
models and they are literally orders of magnitude faster. The final nail in
the coffin came when the repair service for the jets burned to the ground a
few months ago, taking about 80% of the existing jets with it. The jets
failed so often and the service so slow most of the jets ever made were
there. I begged to put our machine out of its misery with an ax, but we gave
it away to someone who was willing to cart it out of our building.

The company split several years ago and that arm seems to be faring much
better. It's called Solidscape. Maybe you can buy jets and other parts from
them, but I doubt it.

Bill Box

Dave wrote:

I question whether or not it is worth using 24V motors on a project.
Maybe a small gantry machine ?

I did find something very interesting in the dissassembly thought.

There are two heads. one for the part and one for support. I assume
the support is everything else....

the systems looks like it heats the ink and then blows it to the head.
nut sure as I never saw it work.

the tube from the head is wrapped in a heat tape and has a thermistor
and is heat controlled.

The head looks like it has it's own heater and another 2 wires.

I assume the material is blown to the head where the head operates a
piezo element that blows the material into the chamber.

Anyone know how these prototye machines work ?

I wonder if I could resurect one head and use it to print PCB's ?

Dave