Hi folks,

It's been a while between foam sheets and foam snow for me, one year old baby girl and all. Anyway, one of the elements that I always wanted that would skew that 'Cost/Benefit' analysis on the Phlat3 the right way for me was an inkjet printer adaption. I have been hanging out to see if we could use it as a direct-to-garment printer (T-Shirts, rc paraglider plans) as well as preprinting those profile aircraft.

I've been watching various sites, not having those skills myself. Anyway, one of the web sites now hosts content from a very generous team of individuals;

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:8542

Having a quick look, some mounting brackets and controller electronics is all that I think it would take adapt to any existing CNC table. Let me know otherwise. Opinions accepted in lieu of knowledge right now ;-)

Anyway, please check it out and let me know what you think. While I happen to have a couple of arduino mega controllers here, I have promised Madame a functional RepRap Mendal, after my next study subject, sometime after baby's graduation...

Tchuss!
Scott

 

I started down this road a few months ago thinking this would make a great attachment option for the Phlatprinter 3. I got side tracked with an avalanche of projects that needed my attention and didn't really get much further than tossing ideas around and trying to source out a few of the needed items. In the process, I ran across another local DIY guy who was working up his version using a modified ink jet printer carriage assembly. He eventually abandoned his project due to the ink not "setting" or "drying" on the foam media. I believe he was working with EPP sheet foam.

A few items for discussion:

1. What type of ink system is going to work on your media? Will that system be universal or media limited? I was hoping to use a UV light curable ink system for use on EPP and Depron foams.

2. How much are you willing to spend? After looking at the DIY options I checked into purchasing a commercial system. All I could find was a 4' x 8' vacuum hold down, overhead gantry system. Pricing was coming in at 70-80,000 used and about 150,000 new. Not really practicable for a small business venture.

3. Dedicated machine or removable face plate attachment? I'm leaning towards building a second Phlatprinter 3 solely for the printing function. Mainly due to the number of units I want to produce.

4. Production numbers? A few units here and there or are we looking for larger scale usage in the range of 100-200 units a month?

5. What are my raw material costs?

6. What kind of quality will the end product be?

That's what I have been looking at and a few of the issues I have been trying to solve. Perhaps we are thinking along the same lines?

 

I think we're still at the feasibility and evaluation stage There are plenty of people smarter or less time poor than me working on this, such as;

http://techref.massmind.org/techref/pcb ... resist.htm
or
http://www.t-shirtforums.com/diy-dtg/

I know that some foams will take certain inks. We buy those preprinted profilies and crash them Those materials are out there. We just need to learn what foam goes with what ink. The epson head was interesting in that they said the piezo-electrics in the head could push a variety of inks. I also know that some of these profilies are covered with a preprinted pattern, so if I need to find some Tyvek, not a problem (actually, its been painful over this side of the pacific - you can only buy A0 rolls of Tyvek for inkjet printing from HP so far)

Personally, I'd like to be able to use an existing Epson multiple cartridge carriage and printhead, a la diy-dtg forum. At the moment I don't know of a print controller that's separated from the XY carriage driver. That's still to be investigated. I would have to control expenditure to a single Phlat3 (one day) so a tool adapter plate is a must for me.

Regards,
Scott

 

It appears that this ink system is using a heat press to cure the ink image. A UV light curable ink system I believe is what this project is going to need to be more in line with our foam media.

Finding a spray head system that can deliver bulk quantities, 2-3 colors, of UV ink is what I'm the most interested in. Once that piece is sourced out we would need to find a method to integrate the spray head with hopefully, the Planet-CNC software. That part is well beyond my current skill set. That's sort of my basic vision of this project.
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