LulzBot has released their “MegaSpool” spooling solution, and it should work for every FFF 3D printer.
Most filament spools available on the market today are designed to hold either 1kg of material or 750 g. Because of this, most desktop FFF systems are designed to accommodate that size of spool.
While some 3D printers, like Bambu Lab’s AMS and similar multimaterial systems, require a specific spool size format to fit within their filament switchers, most units simply have a post sticking out the side, on top, or back of the machine. The spool is placed on these posts and feeds material into the extruder.
But what happens when you want to use larger-sized spools? It’s possible to purchase 2kg or even 8kg spools. Typically, these are used on large-format FFF systems, but in theory, there’s nothing stopping you from using them on smaller desktop FFF systems.
Except that you can’t easily mount such large spools on these systems.
Enter the MegaSpool. It’s an external accessory that is designed to hold spools up to 10kg in weight. This allows the 3D printer to run continuously for longer periods without the need for operator intervention.
You might wonder why you need a special accessory for this purpose: could you not simply put a spool on rollers and have it work?
It turns out you can’t. Larger spools are actually harder to rotate due to the weight, placing extra work on the extruder motor. This could be sufficient to cause quality problems in the print, and certain put long-term strain on the motor.
The MegaSpool fixes those issues with a built-in drive motor. As the filament feeds, the motor slowly rotates the large spool to keep up with the extruder’s need for filament.
Then the question becomes: how does the MegaSpool know when to rotate? Is there some complex electronic interface between it and the 3D printer?
Nope, the LulzBot scientists have designed a completely brilliant approach that is elegantly simple and provides this control mechanism.
Here’s how it works: the filament leads through a lever at the bottom of the MegaSpool. When the extruder activates, it pulls the filament tighter. The tighter filament pulls on the lever, activating the MegaSpool rotation motor. When the filament slackens, the lever falls back and the rotation stops.
In this way, the MegaSpool will feed out segments of filament as required, keeping the extruder fed with material continuously.
This is ideal for systems with larger build volumes, where print jobs might often exceed 1kg in weight. Normally, this would require the operator to remove the empty spool and mount a fresh spool of material. With the MegaSpool, the machine simply continues printing.
You might suggest that smaller FFF systems don’t have build volumes that can print objects much larger than a single kilogram, so why would you need this?
There are solutions for continuous 3D printing, such as those from 3DQue and others. These approaches involve using the printhead to push completed prints off the bed, setting things up for the next print job. These configurations can print objects continuously as long as there is material.
For such situations, the MegaSpool would be ideal.
The MegaSpool would also work for small-volume desktop FFF 3D printers because it would allow operators to purchase huge spools at lower per kg prices.
An example of this might be SunLu’s PLA+2.0 filament. You can purchase a single kilogram spool at the regular price of US$19.99, or a 3kg spool of the same material at US$36.99. If you’re using this material regularly, then it would make sense to buy the bigger spool and feed it using a MegaSpool.
The MegaSpool is a terrific idea, but you will have to purchase one to get these benefits. The opening price set for the device is US$395. While that might seem a bit pricey, anyone printing larger volumes of material could quickly recover the cost of the device. In the SunLu scenario above, you’d break even after two months of printing a kg of material per day.
Via LulzBot
