ZCorp Powder Printer Thread

Hey Team,

We officially have a donation of a ZCorporation ZPrinter 310+ Model, which is a powder-based 3D printer will full colour capability. It can also print with Z-Cast and Investment Casting powder for creating aluminium casting moulds. You can also by elastomer powder. Currently it is sitting in the boiler room until a more permanent home is found.

  • This machine was donated by Darren, who picked up the machine at an auction for cheap as it was hidden with a lot of other equipment and not recognised for what it was. The printer is about the size of a large photocopier, has wheels, weighs about 200kg and comes with a separate 400mm x 400 mm x 1.6mm de-powdering station for removing and recycling excess powder.
  • During the auction process, the machine had been tipped on it’s side and the powder had solidified. Darren has already done much of the cleaning to fix this up.
  • The computer doesn’t boot. Darren was quoted $5700 for probably only $400 worth of parts from 3D systems to replace the electronics.
  • Carriage bearings need replacing as they got powdered
  • The powdering station compressor may need replacing, the pressure switch also trips.
  • Powder can be recycled and is not wasted. @pelrun has pointed out we can make our own powder and binder with the wealth of info on here, even made out of sugar and vodka!
    http://reprap.org/wiki/Powder_Printer_Recipes
    http://www.evillabs.net/index.php/ZCorp_Z310%2B

@DreadPirateRobinson can fill in any more info I’ve missed
@jabelone is currently working on booting the computer

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Unfortunately the controller PC complains about not seeing the PCI controller card when it starts up.

On inspection it was discovered that the PCI card has a big bend in it (!!!), and as a result a lot of the pins on the main fpga chip have broken off from their pads. I’ve put the bent edge in a vise and am trying to take some of the bend out before I resolder the chip. No idea if that’s the only problem or if there are more broken traces than the ones I can see directly.

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Another open source powder printer - http://ytec3d.com/plan-b-building/

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Wish you success

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