D3D Universal Product Release

D3D Universal Features

Check out all that you get

1. Universal Gearless Extruder. Our unique design works well with both 1.75 and 3 mm filament, and its ClogFree exposed filament path allows for clogs to be cleared in seconds. No other 3D printer that we know of uses 3 mm filament without using a geardown, and we also know of no other extruder that accepts both 1.75 mm and 3 mm filament without any modification.
2. Interchangeable Tool Heads. You can attach other toolheads simply by removing one bolt. D3D Universal ships with a spring-loaded pen plotter attachment with automatic bed leveling probe so you can print designs on flat substrates such as paper, plywood, metal, cardboard, plastic, or t-shirts. You can attach any pen or marker. We plan on releasing a vinyl cutter, CNC mill/drill attachment, and laser cutter head in February, 2020.
3. Powered by FreeCAD - give extra power to D3D Universal by modifying its parts. We provide full part libraries for the entire design in FreeCAD, the premiere open source CAD package. You can modify parts, and print new versions readily. And - we can teach you a streamlined FreeCAD workflow in a one hour webinar.
4. Flexible Build Plate - with magnetic attachment for quick release of printed parts
5. Automatic Bed Leveling - using an inductive height sensor, the D3D Universal does the bed leveling for you so that the first layer attaches firmly to the print bed. No need for an involved calibration procedure - just print without doing any adjustment and the printer probes the bed at 4 points to determine the level of the bed. All you need to do is to turn a knob on the control panel until the nozzle prints exactly on the surface.
6. Eco-Friendly - our printer uses 67W, orabout 1/3 the energy of typical printers. This may not sound like a lot, but if you are in Germany with 33 cent electricity rates and you are running a print farm, that is $400 electricity costs saved per printer per year!
7. Large Heater Block and Nozzles - D3D Universal ships stock with the Volcano heater block and 1.2 nozzle for fast printing and stronger prints for prototyping and production. Also comes with 0.8 and 0.4 nozzles. We found that using 1.2 mm nozzles with 0.4 mm layer gives us excellent quality and strength and super-fast production rates.
8. Self-replicating - print more parts and build more D3D Universal printers. The limit here is that you still have to use metal parts that you buy from the store - but you can make 1/3 of the unique parts with the printer itself.
9. 'Distributive Enterprise. Our goal is to shift the world from consumerism to a maker society. And we have a clear way for you to do this: we will buy printed parts for the 3D printer from you, so you effectively become our supplier! This is an education in itself - as you will need to learn specific quality control methods so that you can guarantee to us that your parts will work. Find out more about this unique opportunity at D3D Universal Part Production
10. OSE Lifetime Design Guarantee - We pay attention to simplicity, desing-for-repair, design-for-disassembly, and robustness. We use a 100% open source design with full documentation in FreeCAD. We use common, off-the-shelf parts in our design You can improve D3D Universal with time by modifications or tool head additions - no specially-fabricated parts or exotic components are necessary. This means that YOU can decide how long you would like to continue using the machine, where ready replacement parts and our design-for-repair make this easy by using parts that you print, parts from a local hardware store, or from Amazon. Even if we ever go out of business, you will be able to use, maintain, and upgrade your machine.
11. Universal Axis belt-driven design. CNC motion system for modification and scalability. Can be scaled up 100x in size and 2000x in torque-handling ability by upsizing from 8 mm prcision motion rods up to 3 inch shaft.
12. Innovative Belt-Driven Z axis allows for fast Z motion (such as with plotter function) and makes it impossible for a crash into the bed to destroy the print surface.
13. Uses the Universal Controller, which can be scaled up to power much larger machines with the ready addition of external stepper motor drivers.
14. LCD screen for display information - keep track of print time and extruder temperature, print speed, and adjust parameters directly on the printer.
15. Marlin Inside - uses the open source and most widely used firmware in the world - Marlin, with a great support community and decent documentation
16. Powered by RAMPS - uses the most common 3D printer controller in the world, which is open source so you will always be able to find a replacement or make one yourself
17. Safe Design - uses an on-board GFCI protector to eliminate the risk of severe electric shock
18. Product Ecology - The D3D Universal is part of a larger product ecology of machines with interchangeable parts. It can make parts for other machines.
19. Bootstrapping to the Open Source Microfactory - As part of the OSE product ecology - we allow for easy bootstrapping. D3D Universal can be used to make all the 3D printed parts for our dedicated production printer, the D3D Pro. It can also be used to make all the parts for our CNC Torch Table.
20. OSHWA Certification - we are applying for the Open Source Hardware Association certification as an official artifact of open hardware to be shared with the world.
21. Flexible Bed - a removable magnetic spring steel sheet with Buildtak surface is used for easy print removal. Prints stick well to a Buildtak sheet without needing a heated bed.

Specifications

• Print area - 6"x6"x6"
• Energy usage - 67W
• Stock nozzles - 1.2 mm. 0.8 mm and 0.4 mm are included
• System voltage - 24V system
• Print Surface - Buildtak
• Firmware - Marlin
• Controller - modular controller with GFCI outlet, with 5V/24V RAMPS 1.4 board and Reprap Discount Full Graphic Smart Controller LCD screen. Arduino is fed with 5V.
• Untethered printing using SD card and SD card reader
• Can use USB connection for printing
• Slicing Software - Lulzbot Cura, or any other slicer
• Extruder - OSE's Universal Gearless Extruder, direct drive, no gearing, works with 1.75 and 3 mm filament
• Heater block - E3D Volcano clone with 40W heater and 24V heater element
• Filament - 3 mm or 1.75 mm filament using the same extruder
• Built Dimensions (without filament spool) - approximately 14x16x16 inch (36x40x40 cm)
• Weight - 6.4 kg (14.2 lb)
• Shipping dimensions - 6 x 12 x 12 inch
• Maximum extrusion rate - about 5 lb/24 hours
• Motion System - belt-drive Universal Axis with 8 mm rods
• Automatic bed leveling using an 8 mm distance sensing inductive probe that stays far away from the print surface compared to standard 4 mm sensors.
• Supported materials - PLA, PETG, ABS, Flexible materials

8 Reasons Why You Want a D3D Universal

• Robust, uncloggable extruder - after frustration with leading brands, we decided to design our own and succeeded. Not only that, we discovered that our design works great with 3 mm filament, apparently making ours the first extruder in the world that does not use a geardown for 3 mm filament.* (*We'll be glad to retract this claim if someone indicates otherwise).*Fast print speeds with large heater block and large stock nozzle. This is afforded by the stock volcano heater block, and we will be designing a larger heater block in the future so we can print rubber tires and tracks for our open source tractors.
• Lowest unique part count of any 3D printer in the world - means more simplicity, less down-time potential, easier troubleshooting, and more ability to repair and maintain
• OSE lifetime design guaranee - you get to decide the lifetime your machine. Breakage, costly or impossible repairs, lack of parts, or lack of support do not play a role in determining the useful lifetime of this product.
• Great performance with 3 mm flexible filaments - we have shorter filament path-to- than the leading Titan Aero, and are leagues over any Bowden
• Only extruder that works equally well with 1.75 and 3mm filament (except for rubber - we do not recommend our extruder with 1.75 rubber filaments, nor do we recommend using 1.75 mm at all for any flexible filament, as pushing a flexible noodle will make it bend and it will clog your extruder).
• Low energy usage while producing strong parts. Not using a heat bed may sound backwards, but if most printing is done with PLA (and flexibles in our case), then a heated bed is not necessary as Buildtak works great as an unheated bed surface. So you can print effectively while saving energy.
• Great community support - by using the popular Marlin, RAMPS, Cura, and FreeCAD software - we are benefitting from large user communities for support. This is quite the opposite of highly custom products that can be supported only by specially-trained and dedicated staff, which may disappear if a company goes out of business.
• Joining a project to change the world. This is part of a continuing and ongoing open source product development effort to create a transparent and inclusive economy of abundance.

General

• FreeCAD inside - full part libraries and CAD is available in FreeCAD.
• Powered by MediaWiki - full documentation on the OSE wiki, including complete Bill of Materials, build instructions, and
• RAMPS Inside -
• Start and print - Requires no calibration out of the box. One-step babystepping correction sets print head height on first run, and automatic bed leveling probe does the rest.
• Powered by the Universal Axis scalable robotic motion system
• Powered by the Universal Controller scalable control hardware
• Ready upgrade to 12"x12" print bed
• Interchangeable tool heads - comes with a pen plotter attachment that connects in seconds with one bolt
• Universal Controller can be upgraded readily to power larger machines
• OSE Lifetime Design Guarantee, and OSE Unlimited Lifetime Warranty
• Powered by Arduino clones
• Powering the GVCS - TED Talk
• Open Source Appropriate Technology
• Industrial productivity on a small scale - stock with 1.2 mm nozzle, and printed on a 1.2 nozzle.
• Flexible plate with magnetic quick attach to printer for quick print removal - uses 0.6 mm spring steel that you twist and print comes right off.
• BuildTak inside -
• Uses Lulzbot Cura FSF certified software.

Technical

• See prusa mini, Ultimaker, Lulzbot Mini 2 product pages
• See microfactory.opensourceecology.org product page

Ethical

• OSE Social Contract
• Distributive Enterprise inside. Do you want to produce this machine? We can certify you. See list of Certified Producers.
• OSHWA Certified - currently applying for Un-Patent Number US-------
• Respects Your Freedom - currently applying
• Made in the USA, Made in Belgium.

More

• D3D Universal Product Page
• Value Proposition of Open Source
• D3D Simple Value Proposition. D3D Simple Expandability Value Proposition
• https://microfactory.opensourceecology.org/kits/
• D3D Universal Product Page
• D3D Pro Product Release
• D3D Universal Production Engineering
• D3D Universal Community
• December 2019 Production Run

Website Assets

• Product page drawing - [1]
• Product page drawing 2 - [2]
• Community Projects Footer - [3]
• Wordpress page - [4]

Future Work

• D3D Pro Product Release