Apologies in advance if this is already posted topic.
I think it is reasonable that embed Filastruder or Filabot mechanism to material supply part of RepRap clone 3D printer(s). Because filament type material is weak to moisture and material spool require a space.
Most strong point is less material deplete. When you use filament, material get twice heat that pellet > filament > extrude. But when you get this idea, material only one heat that pellet > extrude.
Does anyone have no interesting?
I think there are 3 problems: weight (to reduce the heat cycles the pellet drive would have to be on the carriage), constancy in flow (if you use a pellet drive you must know how much material is extruded per step, the pellets vary in size), color (most pellets are pretty bland when it comes to color)
Isn’t the Makibox team working on something like this?
They were going to but stopped to minimize delays, now it is filament maker and printer. Also their plan was to make filament as fast as the machine extruded it I think.
Pellets absorb just as much water as filament, if not more for their larger surface area. I learned this the hard way when my pellet to filament extruder spat out nothing but bubbly fuzz that looked nothing like filament.
Don’t worry about material degradation from the two heat cycles. A masterbatch for injection molding is extruded and cooled many times to properly mix the ingredients (including colorants, fillers …). If done at the proper temperatures, the degradation will be near zero.
But then again, i’m not as worried about consistent feed as some - if the drive motor is properly controlled, the material feed from a pellet extruder is pretty consistent. Rectracts are a no-go, though, and ooze is a definite problem.