3D Printed 7 Axis Robot

Problem

The cost of 3D printed parts increases when human operators are needed to remove the parts from a 3D printer. If a small business has five 3D printers and they each produce a part every 4 hours, then the operator has very little work to do but is still driving up the cost of each part. Industrial robots that are being used in 3D printing farms are very expensive, and more advanced than what is needed to remove parts from 3D printers. Small businesses cannot afford $30,000 robots to remove parts from printers, which increases their operating costs.

Solution

Our first prototype is a 7 axis robot. It uses 6 stepper motors and 2 linear actuators to move through 7 degrees of freedom. It can move 36 inches vertically and 18 inches horizontally. It's a combination of 3D printed housings and standard linear motion devices. The Robot is controlled by an Arduino and is completely open source. Furthermore the design will be open source as well, consumers will be able to print their own replacement parts and modifications.  The final product's price point will be $3,000.