Introduction

Democratising 5-axis 3D printing

At present, many people are unable to access 5-axis 3D printing due to the unavailability of hardware and software for personal use. Commercial multi-axis CNC machines and robotic arms are not designed specifically for additive manufacturing, and their firmware does not support standard 3D printing functions. Moreover, even the most affordable 5-axis machine still costs more than $9,945, which makes it prohibitively expensive for personal use.

On the other hand, community engagement has been the primary driving force behind the widespread adoption of 3D printing in various industries. Through collaborative development, 3D printers have become more affordable, functional, and user-friendly. Similarly, 5-axis 3D printing could also benefit from the open-source community to accelerate its development and growth.

Open5x is a project that draws inspiration from open-source machines for personal fabrication. The project demonstrates how a popular off-the-shelf 3-axis 3D printer can be upgraded to 5-axis 3D printing, enabling more independent makers to take advantage of the benefits of conformal 3D printing.

The Open5x project was first showcased at the 13th Annual Conference on Human Computer Interaction Design and Research, and since then, has been demonstrated at various make fairs and 3D printing events such as 3D meetup Sweden, ERRF, and FormNext supported by Duet3D.

Related article:

https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3491101.3519782 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addma.2023.103546

Link to the video: https://youtu.be/x9rG15qrDIE

Update

So far, Open5x hardware has been iterated and implemented onto various FDM 3D printers such as Prusai3, Voron and E3D's toolchanger system. This conversion system requires some of the off-the-shelf components and 3D-printed parts. All of the necessary parts are listed in this repository.

The latest iteration of Open5X is running on E3D's toolchanger and Voron, developed by @BrendonBuilds

License

The contents of this repository is under an MIT License, see LICENSE.md for more details.