Standards in FDM, et al. (Page 1 of 2)

The only organization I am aware of is the rep rap movement and i am not aware of any standards set by them.
The only standard I am aware of is the 1.75 mm  and the 2.85 mm Aka 3 mm set for filament. And this is kind of an upper limit . Many of the better filament makers have there own standard.  and as long as the size is consistent and fits though the extuder people do not care a lot. (it is a good idea to measure each roll and input this info into your slicer)
Some filament makers publish a pantone number of each color. Pantone is a color standard company.
There is also a web page http://greybeard3d.com/tha attempts to make sence of the color maze out there.
And as carl mentioned the  NEMA (Standard) simply refers to the face dimensions of the stepper motor nema 14.17, 23. 34 etc
and even that standard is a bit random as a nema 14 is 1.4  in aross the face and a NEMA 23 is 2.3 in across the face. most manufacturers will also give a length. And the performance varies from motor to motor.
Dremel actualy has there 3d printers UL approved . Something unusual in the 3d printing industry.
Unlike the Nanny state you seem to live in there is no big brother 3d printer police.
The standards out there are self imposed.

“The wonderful thing about standards is that there are so many of them to choose from.”

― Grace Murray Hopper
The late great rear admiral Of the US Navy  and computer pioneer

Tin

Standards exist for a reason, without them, how do you know your getting a gallon of gas or a kilo of dope?

What I mean is, everything has to have a standard written so that the process can be replicated by others in a safe manner.

Like its no use using thin wires on a system that is drawing double digits current, you get a fire... this is what I think it the major problem here, the lack of a basic safety standard is the reason so many fires have been reported.

People make changes to their kit build, I get that as I have made changes, however, I have actually ensured that I have got the right stuff to do the job, others may not consider that a mistake can lead to a fire.

Having built computers in the past, I know that the most often complained about issue that friends and neighbours reported were all too common issues and it stemmed from the fact that PC manufacturers do not put in power supplies that are powerful enough to cope with any more load than it is currently drawing.

Lack of headroom is a number one service call creator and my advice was to upgrade the PSU, once I worked out the total draw, I added 50% on top of that and swapped out the old for the more powerful and that solved issues until the "Your power supplies slowed my PC down" claims came in... You know what people are like... *face palm moment*

Point is, there is nothing stopping one being drawn up, safe electrics, what do you require???

Well simple sentence like

Power supply must
.: be Earthed / Grounded by connection to the supply socket earthing pin
.: supply current for peak loads without overheating or the temperature of the supply exceeding 50 degrees C
.: have adequate protection from short circuit, current overload, over heating and automatic shutdown
.: not have exposed terminals
.: have correct spacing and isolation of high voltage side to low voltage side

and so on, thats just the power supply, a guide to say what the supply should be capable of delivering and reminder that components will draw current no matter how small, it all adds up.

Yes I do Know that i work with standards on a daily basis. Most 3d printers are built with metric hardware.

Like carl i see no need for regulation or standardization of 3d printers. If your cheap chines kit is not to you liking simply fix it , change it or sell it.

This is a hobby make with it what you like.

I think people misunderstand the "standards" and that if you are first, write up your "How I did it" and publish it, it is basically "A Standard" as long as another person can pick up that book and copy what you did and create a working system.

What you use in your build is part of that standard, anything that links to those components to supply power will have been used as a standard. The hobbyist however, will likely have used sturdier materials and so on.

What I am looking for is the standard that is the template for FDM, not what crap is on offer built or kit, there will be someone who has published online their standard(s) as there will invariably be more than one origin for building an FDM.

Youtube has been useful to a degree but not helpfu;l in finding this "Jump" point where someone copied a working industrial machine, FDM has existed for a lot longer than people realize, it, like CNC milling, it was copied. FDM is no different, Industrial machinery has always ended up in hobbyists hands in one form or another, whether it be something aimed at the hobbiest or not.

I remember my Grandfathers Shed, he was an engineer, build 1/nth size working replicas to absolute minute detail, he worked to a standard (the drawing) to make the parts, nothing like hobbiests machine parts today, he made everything out of solid blocks of metal, no bought parts.

Standards exist in many forms. They are more often written and presented as a "How I did it" and not as a standard would be written laying out specs, its less formal but often references to certain needs, pitfalls, things to be aware of, etc.

I find it had to believe that FDM has got this far and there has been no standard to work to as a guide.

A standard for example can be as simple as

Equal parts of
1/4 Cup butter
1/4 Sugar
1/4 Self Raising flour
1/4 Milk
Mix sugar and butter until creamy
Add flour and milk and whisk together slowly

Preheat oven to ...

If you alter the standard above, you get a pancake not a sponge cake... Thats how subtle standards can be.

But you have to have a document showing what went in to something if you are going to copy and I am more for Open Source than copying.

You may not think it but at some point there was a standard that the hobyist took, someone will know that that standard was and where it came from, as in the industrial sector.

IMHO there are just to many variants in 3d printers  to allow for this.
And with slicers g code is more or less disposable.
And hobbyists are continually changing settings and hardware.
this is why stl files are shared instead.

ok - so the various components used in 3d printers DO have appropriate "standards" - NEMA motors, the controller boards, and various other bits & pieces.. but HOW those components are put together does not have specific "standards" because it is a HOBBY market, NOT a consumer market, per se..

Yes, the big companies may have "standards" written specifically for their machines - DaVinci, Makerbot, Dremel, etc - BUT those are "CLOSED source" machines - Proprietary - they do not share that info.

Open Source is just that - you are open to source your own bits & pieces and put them together however you like - maybe it works, maybe it doesn't. That is called "innovation".
No, the information is not documented all neat & tidy the way you seem to want it to be, but it IS out there IF you take the time to look for it.

IMHO it help to know what one is looking for  when searching.
I did provide several links to some well documented open source projects

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4973
This is documentation for one of the first commercially made open source printers.
the maker bot thing o matic.

3d printing started as an industrial venture in the 1980s
the reprap movement has been around about 10 years.
Look up the history of 3d printing. 

The info is out there you jut may need to dig a bit.

... and history teaches us that the person who claims to be the first is often not the first. Like Bill Gates who stole off Steve Jobs and
those of napster fame were reported to have stolen the software off a student who was "Napping" on their laptop and plenty of other stories float around and since following the links I see, Someone is claiming to have invented FDM, which I do not believe for one second.

We have Charles Hull form the US claiming he invented FDM by way of STL in 1986, however it on further investigation appear in 1980 in Japan... yet you input inventor od 3D printing, chances are you get Stratsys at the top of the pile and considering that they were late to the dinner party, goes to show just how people see themselves on the internet when the truth is far from the reality we are presented.

So that alone blow many holes in several peoples claims to be the granddaddy of FDM.

So Hull and Clump I think need to wind it back in a bit.
This is the problem with the internet, the person who shouts loudest and often gets pole position and falsely claim that throne.

If I said "DOT MATRIX PRINTER" you are going to instantly thing of the 1980's... WRONG, think of 1925.