Hackaday – Dynamic Build Platforms for 3D Printers Remove Supports and Save Material

We’re all too familiar with the 3D printing post-processing step of removing supports, and lamenting the waste of plastic on yet another dwindling reel of filament. When the material is expensive NinjaFlex or exotic bio-printers, printing support is downright painful. A group at USC has come up with a novel way of significantly reducing the amount of material that’s 3D printed by raising portions of the bed over time, and it makes us wonder why a simpler version isn’t done regularly.
In the USC version, the bed has a bunch of square flat metal pieces, with a metal tube underneath each. The length of the tube determines the eventual height of that square. Before the print is…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://hackaday.com/2021/04/10/dynamic-build-platforms-for-3d-printers-remove-supports-and-save-material/