Kinematic Bed Mounting

The 3-Point Kinematic Bed Mount is still in the design phase, but it will be made to level and compensate for a bent bed plate or dips. The three z-axis lead screws are used as the three points that make up a triangle and define plane of the bed can raise without binding or twisting keeping your work flat. The kinematic bed mounting system allows the bed to heat up without the thermal expansion effecting z-axis motion or bending the bed.

What is a kinematic mount?

A kinematic coupling is designed to constrain the mechanical components with optimal precision and positional accuracy. For example a kinematic coupling uses three radial v-grooves in one part that mate with three hemispheres in another part. A kinematic mount, which is ideal for bed leveling and proper mechanical constraint. A kinematic mount is a mount in which all six degrees of freedom (three translations and three rotations) of a 3D object are restrained from moving without over constraint.

How does a kinematic mount work?

A kinematic mount is a type of mounting mechanism used for positional accuracy. The movable frame that holds the print bed pivots on a ball bearing which is set into a hole in the fixed frame.

Kinematic Constraints

Kinematic constraints are constraints between mechanical components that decrease the degrees of freedom of rigid systems. The degrees of freedom or DOF of a rigid body is defined as the number of independent movements it has. To determine the DOF of this body we must consider how many distinct ways the bar can be moved. On a two dimensional plane such as a 3d printer build plate, there are 3 DOF. The print bed can be translated along the x-axis and y-axis, and rotated about each axis.

Z-Axis Documentation Drive Folder