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Compact and cost-effective lead screw technology proves it's worth in mini 3D-printers

drylin® Trapezoidal threaded spindle and lead screw nut for precise movements in LumiPocket 3D printers

This 3D printer is only ten centimeters high, but prints objects of the highest quality. This is made possible by a drylin® trapezoidal lead screw with a flanged miniature nut, which ensures absolutely precise and smooth movement of the print head. Companies from the jewelry industry and dental laboratories have already expressed great interest in the device due to its high level of accuracy.

Application Overview

  • What was needed: drylin® trapezoidal threaded spindle and lead screw nut
  • Requirements: During printing, a tray must perform extremely precise vertical movements in order to achieve a high print resolution of 50 micrometers. In addition, the smallest possible components had to be found for the compact 3D printer.
  • Industry: 3D-Printer
  • Success for the customer: With the help of drylin® components, the Lumi Pocket was developed as a 3D printer that combines an extremely compact design with outstanding print quality and an unbeatable price.
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3D printer

Problem

Lumi Industries has developed an extremely compact 3D printer with light-sensitive resins and a DLP projector to produce parts with high print quality. Printing begins with the STL drawing of the object to be printed, which is sliced into layers of 100 to 25 microns by slicing software. Each layer becomes an image that is projected onto a moving tray by a DLP projector.
The Lumipocket mechanism is based on a vertical trapezoidal threaded spindle in which a movable base mounted on a flanged miniature nut moves up and down. The tray in which the printed object is to be created is connected to the moving base and immersed in a vat of resin. During printing, the tray must perform an extremely precise vertical movement that enables a print resolution of each layer of up to 50 microns on the Z-axis. The smaller the layer, the better the quality of the object created, as the individual sections are less visible.

Solution

In order to achieve high precision on the Z-axis of the 3D printer, Lumi Industries opted for a drylin® trapezoidal threaded lead screw. It is not only compact and takes up little space in the printer, but also enables very precise movement of the tray. To suspend the moving base, the company opted for a particularly small drylin® lead screw nut with flange which enables minimal precise movements. The flange with screw holes also enables better fastening of the moving base. Thanks to the trapezoidal threaded lead screw and flanged miniature nut, the 3D printer can achieve layers of a constant 50 microns. The customer is even testing to achieve 25 micrometers with the support of the software.
The result: with the help of drylin® components, the Lumi Pocket is a 3D printer that combines an extremely compact design with outstanding print quality and an unbeatable price.

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