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Printer suspension, any data?  

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mnentwig
(@mnentwig)
Trusted Member
Printer suspension, any data?

Hi,

there are two mechanical extremes for the suspension (think "car") of a printer:

- Enforce zero movement: Place on a solid stone floor, maximum force / torque at the contacts but the movement vector is ideally zero

- Enforce zero force / torque: Place on Hula feet with thrust bearings or suspend between bungee cables (as an extreme thought experiment) or shoot into a low-earth orbit (hope your WLAN is good...) The boundary conditions don't allow force or torque, the printer can move freely.

Reality is of course somewhere in-between, and probably more complicated. E.g. the source of vibrations - the XY gantry - is actually quite far away in "Z" from the feet.

Is there already some consensus as to what works best? Of course, tuning needs to be re-run on the actual suspension, or results are meaningless.

Posted : 23/10/2025 5:46 pm
hyiger
(@hyiger)
Honorable Member
RE: Printer suspension, any data?

 

Posted by: @mnentwig

Hi,

there are two mechanical extremes for the suspension (think "car") of a printer:

- Enforce zero movement: Place on a solid stone floor, maximum force / torque at the contacts but the movement vector is ideally zero

- Enforce zero force / torque: Place on Hula feet with thrust bearings or suspend between bungee cables (as an extreme thought experiment) or shoot into a low-earth orbit (hope your WLAN is good...) The boundary conditions don't allow force or torque, the printer can move freely.

Reality is of course somewhere in-between, and probably more complicated. E.g. the source of vibrations - the XY gantry - is actually quite far away in "Z" from the feet.

Is there already some consensus as to what works best? Of course, tuning needs to be re-run on the actual suspension, or results are meaningless.

I have both Hula feet and a very rigid tabletop. Subjectively it seems better. I have been planning to do a before/after comparison at some point. 

Posted : 23/10/2025 6:21 pm
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