Development of Four-Axis 3D Printer with Fused Deposition Modeling Technology

A new four-axis 3D printer using fused-deposition modeling (FDM) technology has been developed. The hardware components, consisting of a mechanical structure and servo-control system, and an original computer-aided machining (CAM) system were developed. Three-dimensional printers, particularly those using FDM technology, have gained popularity even in hobby use for the easy modeling of special and original parts. Three-axis control systems using stepping motors or servomotors are generally used for the development of conventional 3D printers. The nozzle portion is therefore constrained in one direction. This leads to limitations in modeling 3D shapes. Adding degrees of freedom is necessary to create more complex features. We designed a new 3D printer with multi-axis control to address this problem. Our final goal is the development of a five-axis 3D printer. We started with a four-Axis 3D printer as a first step. The number of lamination directions is increased from three to four. As conventional CAM systems cannot be used to program the desired lamination for a four-axis 3D printer, a new CAM system using the Kodatuno kernel was developed. The system can determine the nozzle orientation based on the machine tool formulation. This paper reports the developmental background and an overview of the developed machine tool as well as its characteristics, its evaluation results, and our future plans.