3D printed closed loop timing belt - any good?
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- Опубликовано: 1 июл 2024
- Let's find out if we can use 3D printed closed loop timing belts. I was testing with different designs, materials and also I tested these 3D printed belts from mechanical strength aspect too.
***Important update for 2.5.0 PrusaSlicer users: Print Settings / Layers and perimeters / Perimeter generator: turn from Arachne to Classic. And turn off Fill gaps.
Cura users: Sorry, new 5.x currently don't want to print those two lines continuously. Can't find the solution so far, except to use older 4.x version.
If you like my work you could support me by sharing and liking this video.
But also any donations are welcome too:
Patreon: / mytechfun
Buy me a coffee: www.buymeacoffee.com/mytechfun
PayPal domations: www.mytechfun.com/donation
STL files and results you can download from:
www.printables.com/model/2155...
or
www.mytechfun.com/video/194
Contents:
0:00 Introduction
2:13 Design
4:41 3D printing settings
6:29 Materials
8:41 About pulling force
10:06 Tensile (pulling) test
12:00 Prolongation (deformation) test
15:27 Torque test
20:33 Durability test
22:56 Results
24:42 Conclusions
#3dprinting #timingbelt 
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Very useful guide for many. I have successfully printed and reinforced timing belts with stretch as low as purchased ones.
1. Use your single walled printed TPU belt (thinner the better)
2. Apply a thin coat of rubber adhesive layer on the outside of the belt
3. Wrap the outside of the belt with PE (poly ethelyne, fishing line) or kevlar or fiberglass, or even mult-strand metal wire.
Wrap in a continuous spiral loop as much as you need, only cutting once after it's fully wrapped.
4. Coat the wrapped belt with another layer of rubber adhesive.
These belts are as good as the real ones but the TPU teeth are not as durable if the friction is high. Also you can experiment with stop-impregnate-resume printing technique of embedding the string inside and melting metal wire into the tpu, both of which are much messier and have not had good results. For me the technique I mentioned above works great for prototyping needs.
Cheers great info.
@@simonlaker2139 Great info, but for the price of purchased belts I'll stick to buying... good to know anyhow.
@@codeblocks4067 The time and effort it takes to get it right is definitely not worth it unless you need custom belt dimensions on short notice. But great results can be achieved while keeping it as thin/flexible as possible with near zero stretch.
@@preddy09 or......you want to build a custom project and claim as much of the project is 3d printed....even the belt(s) in the project.
Inspired by this video, I recently printed a 3M timing belt with 140 teeth from PA6/66 (some kind of co-polymer from a local filament manufacturer). Two walls only x 0.45mm width, no gap fill. It was for my parents bread making machine. It came out incredibly strong and runs smoothly for about a month now... I didn't expect this to work this good, this material has extremely good layer adhesion. The best I ever seen...
Several comments suggested me to try nylon. This just confirmed me that it would be worth to try. Thank you!
@@MyTechFun If you decide to try PA, consider soaking the belt in water for a few hours. You will see a result in a very positive direction... Also if your model is with the accurate dimensions, you can add 0.5% shrinkage compensation. Otherwise it will came out smaller... I suspect that polyethylene would be also a suitable material for timing belts, but I didn't have a chance to try it.
Thorough and well-executed testing. Thanks for taking the time to make this and for sharing it with us!
All results advance knowledge, so it’s great to see a channel that does thorough testing - even if it helps us to learn what doesn’t work. Liked, subscribed and looking forward to more.
Awesome vid. I LOVE the swing behind you
Thanks again for comprehensive testing; and explanation!
Very ingenious tests for TPU! awesome!
Very very high quality video. Thank you for your work!
Very informative as always, thanks
It's cheating I suppose....but you could build more outside walls to the spine of the belt. It would make a thicker and more stiff belt, but it would also resist elasticity.
I love your videos man!!!! this is great information!
Thanks for sharing the knowledge. Well explained, you put sometime in it. Best wishes keep it going.
Cool idea even if it didn't work out as planned. Keep it up
Well done. Very interesting!
Excellent video, thank you!
Awesome video thank you! I think one cool appication may be a replacement for my 3D printed RC car gearbox. Thank you for the inspiration.
Supposedly TPU is compatible with PETG (for bonding) so perhaps with multi material printer you could embed PETG reinforcement.
It would be better to reinforce it with nylon. But this suggestion may be interesting too. Thx
Just like anything else this has it's own use too. To me this looks like a very nice way to get a timing belt for cheap to use in diy projects... considering it's limitations of course. Thank you for this idea.
Could also work in a pinch as a replacement for something while you wait for the actual replacement to arrive!
I’ve had good luck printing traction tires for my model train projects out of TPU. Your project is intriguing as some of my engines use these types of belts in their drivelines. The torque is actually pretty low since these belts are on the motor side of the geartrain. There’s very little shock torque and almost no instant reversing so I’m thinking these could be durable enough for my application.
Very nice video will be good to test with another material !
I got several suggestions to try nylon. I will see if it is flexible enough for this..
Just stumbled across your video and liked the experiment very much. Nicely presented! I don't have a printer so I am less than a novice. But I would be curious to know if those belts would slip less if the teeth were a more square profile rather than round. From what you have said I don't know if this is possible with printer.
Excellent.
so awesome :D
I like your thorough presentation even if I don't know enough to say whether your methodology is appropriate.
As an alternative print design, can you please in a future video try printing open loop GT2 belt both upright and flat to the bed for comparison?
To avoid seam line, maybe you could use "spiralize the outer counter" mode on cura. Also called "Cura Vase Mode."
Impossible with multiple walls
I tried spiralize, but only with 1 wall. Not good, since first few layers are not spiralized. The transition looks ugly.
Amazing work. I assume you could use the printed timing belt before the reduction gear to get high tork in for example robotics.
I'm thinking of using timing belts to drive the propellors in a rubber band powered model. The tension will be low so I think slightly stretchable belts might work well.
Maybe you can wrap the outside of the belt , with silk string or something, and glue it on, maybe a flexible adhesive , can glue it on, and be a protective layer externally! It should prevent stretching,. Or possibly print a smooth outer layer, that can be stretched slightly, before being glued on the inner portion , that is wrapped glued, then glue the outer layer onto the belt! It would be closer to production belts,
I printed a timing rack and it works perfectly. I even put sides on the design so the belt sits inside the rack (For added strength) and the rack slides inside the aluminium extruded.
Ps, the rack only slides when first installed, then fixed firmly before operation.
And i thought i was the only one printing his own belts ^^
Great, good to know. You could share us your experience too.. what material do you use for example?
I used anycubix flex white. I printed some belts for NEMA17 stepper motors and it worked out for me :)
They need some sort of thread reinforced TPU, such that the bands would still flex, but not stretch.
I got several suggestions to try Nylon. We will see soon.
Maybe try PCTPE filament, Taulman makes one at a reasonable price. It's supposed to be a cross of tpu flexibility and nylon strength
Also regarding random seam - stringing can be removed by setting keep head over part during travel/move. 🤓 At least in cura that can be done, but do not recall the settings name. 😕
@@TheStuartstardust That's the combing settings; but the existing print tends to pull material out of the nozzle, so there is underextrusion at restart point.
Staying on the topic of belts that are easy to print and don't have too much demands on them, you could try(I dont print TPU and don't have it on hand, so at least not this time for me):
1) Printing them counting the elongation under load in. Should imporve stability, long term stability and also the teeth grip, so max torque. Thin segments of walls will elongate more than toothed segments, but a couple experiments should be enough to find out empirically good geometry.
2) The weakest point is obviously thin part of the wall, you could try making it thicker, like having teeth on both sides of belt in a sense, though back side teeth should obviously be not that pronounced. That could keep the belt flexible while making it tougher and should be printable. Might fail due to not enough wall adhesion though.
Decent video, like usually 🍕🍻
I really enjoyed your video. I don't find these useless. They can be improved. for example: Modifying the pulleys and the belts tooth (make them bigger and wider) and and pause the print a couple of times to insert some kevlar string (or textile fishing line) that was already tied in the length of the belt. Let's also not forget that the commercial belts are not made only of rubber. They would have the same properties if didn't had the reinforcing wire in them..
Thanks I have an Alfawise U10 printer that needed a belt like this to tie the two Z axis together. I hadnt figured out how to make this from a length of timing belt….Laurie NZ.
Soon I will upload a Fusion360 tutorial how to design these timing belts.
Super interesting! these diy belts probable need to be used together with larger pulleys, or as you said, with very small loads. But it does mean that you actually could print your own belts, and those belts could actually be usefull enough for something. This technically means that you could print the belts for a 3D printer, which is means that a 100% diy printed 3d printer is closer than ever before :)
A specialized 3d printer, which can put fibers of some sort in the print, could be used too
Yes, probably there will be a second part of this video, testing Nylon (or even CF Nylon as comments suggested). Bigger pulleys and maybe even different tooth geometry.
Use PLA with vase mode (so single wall, tune the extrusion width of that wall to get the flexibility you need).
I tried, vase mode is nice, only when it finishes first few layers. About material, I got several suggestions to try Nylon (or CF Nylon), it is flexible if printed only with 2 walls. We will see soon.
@@MyTechFun You do need to set both top and bottom layers to 0. With only a single wall, PLA becomes surprisingly flexible, although you of course trade in strength somewhat. The extrusion / wall width allows some control over that tradeoff.
Very interesting.
I wonder, how they would perform if backed with a thin fabric.
or with fishing wire
Carbon fiber tow would be best, as long as you keep it spread flat and thin so it remains flexible. Maybe wind the carbon around the belt and then connect the ends of the carbon to a battery to heat it and melt it into the plastic. Or could try microwaving it for a couple seconds.
yes, was wondering if a wrap of duct tape would lessen the stretch
clearly not a bad idea , there is adhesive tape with a fabric coating on top with that maybe there's a way to solidify the belt
Well done again! Is it possible to print a large belt in a small printer? It would be necessary to fold it a few times, and maybe put some supports to hold it until finished.
Nice experiments. I wonder if it’s possible to pause the print midway so that reinforcements can be added. It might be difficult to get closed loop threads to use as the reinforcement material though.
Somebody wrote in comments, that he reinforced with fishing lines.. but not between layers.
I can order belts from Aliexpress, but it takes time and your way I can quickly verify the diameter belt I need. Thanks.
I do wonder though, if one could use TPU to print flat belts to replace bad belts in old cassette players...
Filaflexible40 seems like it could be one of the better filaments for this. It's flexible but doesn't seem to stretch much and it also feels more grippy than most flexible materials I've seen.
Important update for 2.5.0 PrusaSlicer users: Print Settings / Layers and perimeters / Perimeter generator: turn from Arachne to Classic. Turn off Fill gaps.
Cura users: Sorry, new 5.x currently don't want to print those two lines continuously. Can't find the solution so far, except to use older 4.x version.
Great technical compairason! Would be interesting to see a compairason between 3D printed & non 3D printed gears.
Softer nylon should have been tested as well as using thicker backplain on TPU printed belt. Additionally, some stretch assumption could be designed into the TPU belt to account for stretch putting the teeth into alignment instead of out of alignment with the cog pattern.
I just made a GT1 (1mm wide teeth/gaps) out of PETG. It's for a photographic printer. It's quite flexible and I managed to tweak the flow and temperature to avoid any gaps, strings or blobs. Will it last? Well, we'll see.
I wonder how would it performance in low temperatures and in high temperatures.
Regular belts always have a filler of some kind. String or metal wires. If carbon fibre tpu exists, could that work the same? Is there another type of filament that has a single strand of material throughout the fillament?
Nice engineering. And thank you for wearing safety glasses, I find what a lot of RUclipsrs do with now safety scary, especially for the younger folks that watch and learn bad behaviours.
Looks like it would work well enough for an radio controlled car... I have uses o rings on vee (gears that were warn out so I cut v notch into them) and had great success...
Probably. But just in case, use bigger diameter pulleys, they can be 3D printed too. You will be able to transmit bigger torque.
If it's within the resolution this application is dealing with, I wonder if square teeth would provide any noticeable amount more torque transfer than the sine-wave-ish pattern used.
Hm. Good thinking. I also got suggestion to try Nylon too instead of TPU. Probably this two things will be tested too in near future.
actually there is belts with square teeth. Those got uneven load on the side of the teeth, which is why HTD and the GT profile is considered better than for example AT or T type belts. There's a lot of information about this when you read the spec sheets of belt manufacturers like Continental or Gates.
Isn't the new cura v5 supposed to be able to print different sized walls so you don't get these holes between lines?
I mention in video that if I raise the wall thickness, I don't get holes between lines. In video from 6:00 . (presented in PrusaSlicer, but it exists in Cura 4.? too)
@@karurochari3769 what's the function called?
Great video as always. Are you printing this on Ender 3 and can you share the mods of your Ender 3?
Köszönöm!
Most important mod is direct drive for TPU, but since harder TPU is better for this (95A or 98A), those can be printed with bowden extruder too.
If you 3d print on top of a carcass and then in the next step glue the carcass and tpu endless you will get a strong belt.
Hi can i use some of your work in my engineering project? i would like to give you some credit too man. great work
Thanks, yes, you are free to use it. Soon I will create fusion360 tutorial, how to design other lengths too
I would print that in something like Taulman 230, which is a very flexible but still very durable nylon.
You can modulate the elasticity by adding two variable pumps on the backside.
I am not sure about TPU, I use TPU for soft bumpers but not for anything durable.
Yes, I got several suggestions already to test Nylon (or CF nylon). I will, if there will be significant improvement I will create a video about it. If not, then only a post on YT channel.
@@MyTechFun I'd give a look at the Taulman 230 Nylon. The typical high strength nylons (I guess all CF variants included) are not that flexible.
So they likely will suffer from the bending radius too much.
The 230 one is a low temperature Nylon which is the most flexible I have used.
👍👍👍👍👍
Would it be better to print the belts inside out? (and then flip over) I mean it could be easier to remove the strings from a flat surface.
If I print as described in video, I don't have any strings, nothing to clean.
Hi can you please explain this part of the script in the opencad script ?
spiral_spacing = 4; // Distance between spirals
spiral_inner_radius = 80; // Radius of the inner loop . thank you very much
I am not familiar with OpenCAD, but spiral_spacing could be the discance (pitch) of spiral loops. Inner radius of the spiral.
Interesting tests. Question: Does there exist a fiber reinforced TPU?
That was my thought too. But I got several suggestions to try nylon, it is flexible enough if thin. I'll give it a try.
@@MyTechFun ...or just laminate a kevlar strip to the outside surface.
What about PP? Its quite flexible usually used for live hinges and not very stretchy at all.
I would be interesting to do this on a Mark Forge with the added (Real carbon fiber), Man that would be strong.
it would also be interesting if you tried 9mm belts. i know this means you need to buy new pulleys but it might increase torque.
He could just print pulley
Could you help with "Choosing stepper non captive leadscrew motor" I posted on eevblog forum, so far no replies.
Can you print the design with teeth on outside and randomize seams. Then flip the belt inside out and stringing will not affect the teeth of the belt.
Could be, but as shown in video, seams is not the weak point anyway
Can you revisit this again with the new prusa slicer?
Oh, yes, I just tried it with 2.5. Problematic. Solution: Print Settings / Layers and perimeters / Perimeter generator:
turn from Arachne to Classic. And turn off Fill gaps.
I wonder if something like glass fibre filled TPU would help, I don't know if that even exists
I couldn't find TPU with CF or GF, but somebody suggested Nylon CF. Probably I will test that too, if it is flexible enough.
Unless size, or space, is very limited you can easily increase the torque performance by using bigger pullys?
Yes, sure. Also I will test soon the nylon as belt material as several comments suggested
still gonna use it anyway
Crazy idea; why not use a belt made of cut to length braided steel fishing leader. It should work assuming no external idler pullies in driveline.
I wonder how flexible resins would work. :)
Hm, not sure, but I will test nylon soon, several suggestions I got in comments
Hi!
Could you share with us the design file also? Thanks.
Soon I will create a video how do design a timing belt in F360. I will upload those src files too
haha, cool! :)
To prevent any seams have you tried to print in vase mode?
Yes, I tried. But that's only 1 wall. Another problem, before it starts the spiral path..
@@MyTechFun I understand
Vase mode?
2 walls sounds like a vasemode print to me lol
When you are recognize the vise :D Hasznos anyag volt :D
Köszi :-)
Slicing with cura 5? Suppose to be better eliminating gaps.
I used Cura 4.? but looks like I have to move to 5, I got several suggestions already.
CHICLAYO PERU 🇵🇪
What about trying nylon or even CF nylon. I know from experience that thin standard nylon is quite ductile.
Good idea. I will test it soon, if I will get good results, I will create a video about it.
Maybe try printing them in Nylon instead of TPU?
Looks like I have to try nylon, I got several similar suggestions
results are not surprising because the main part of a timing belt is not a teeth but the stretch-resistant core which your belts are lacking.
Yes. I was just hoping that the difference is smaller.
Excellent as always! Thank you for your effort!.....Just one thought. After I see the experiment design, Its not important for me to see more measurements from each experiment. Id rather hear you discuss the summary results rather than see the measurements being taken. I think in this way the video would be shorter and more informative. The videos are always great, but this is my constructive feedback.
Personal preference, Phil. Many of us strongly (in some cases almost violently) prefer to see the practicum prior to the results, often for a laundry list of reasons.
Megkerdezhetem,hogy magyarul is tölt fel videót ?
Jó lenne, és könnyebb, de már nem fér bele az időmbe
why is it called "timing" belt?
They are used for synchronisation, exact position between two pulleys. Ordinary belt may slip. More info at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timing_belt_(camshaft)
hungarian!
yes
Cool, if you need a timing belt that lasts for one hour
your video was very confusing.. no conclusion. keep in mind people only want to know which filament they should go for when printing belts. that's pretty much it. i could not understand which one to go for and I have no idea what the hell is "Real GT2" is it a filament? is it a smartphone model? 🤣
Excellent video -Thank you!!!