While visiting Midwest RepRap Fest this year I saw lots of belt printers. I was surprised actually, with the amount of belt printers of various types. One table, however, caught my attention very quickly with their kits to turn your Ender into a belt printer.
The company is called Aditiva3D and they manufacture kits that convert your fairly cheap 3D printer into a belt printer. They have pre-made kits for a few models simply bolt on and you’re pretty much done.
What really stood out to me about these kits though, is how amazingly beefy they are. You can see a bit of what I mean in the video simply by looking at the thickness of some of the metal pieces. I was pleasantly surprised at just how rigid these add-on bits were.
Belt Printers Rising
I’ve been watching the area of belt printers for a while, since I initially experienced the Creality CR 30 belt printer. It seemed like, since the patent for an automated belt driven build plate on a 3d printer was held by maker bot, that innovation stalled for quite some time. However, recently we’ve seen more and more of these cool machines popping up. Makerbot’s patent was filed in 2011, so it should technically have another 10 years unless my patent knowledge is wrong. many printers (like the CR30) eschew the patent by tilting the head at 45 degrees which technically changes the belt to be one of the motion axes of the printer and makes it different enough. These kits, however, seem to be able to get by just fine with a vertical placement.
At Midwest Reprap fest alone, there were several to look at, including this super cheap one I shared recently on our youtube channel
However, the Additiva3D kit seems to be offering a very nice balance of price to quality, allowing you to take a cheap 3D printer like an Ender 3, put a few hundred into it and have a fully featured and very solid belt printer.
ADVERTISEMENT
