3DPrinting

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Why do we still use stepper motors? (sopuli.xyz)

submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

7 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Why are 3D printers still stuck on stepper motors? Why haven't we transitioned to servo motors with encoder feedback for positioning?

Is it just too cost prohibitive for the consumer-level? We would be able to print a lot faster and more accurately if we had position feedback on the axes. Instead we just rely blindly on the stepper not skipping any steps when we tell it to move, hoping for the best.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Steppers have a higher precision to a servos higher speed and torque (but torque that’s not constant.)

Just trying to understand this. Then how come all CNC precision machines use a servo instead of a stepper? I mean there are some ridiculously accurate machines that can position itself over and over varying under a micron (<.001mm) but the manufacturers choose servo over stepper. Is it for the sake of holding torque that servos have to be used over steppers?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

All the DIY CNC machines I've seen use larger stepper motors. The commercial CNC machines I've seen can cost $10,000 to hundreds of thousands.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

It seems like the argument is that at the lower price bracket, stepper motors offer higher performance than what a equivalently priced servo+encoder+controller combo can perform.

I felt like what I was reading in this thread wasn't matching up with that I see out in industry... concerns about 'price' didn't come up until your post.

Diamond turning machines are inherently low torque, low speed, AND nanoscale operations which uses servos for driving its respective axis. See precitech -youtube and in stark comparison Roeder's 5axis optical mold machining. Wire EDM's were all driven by servo motors until linear motors became popular. Even those famous JingDiao test samples are made on machines driven by servos.