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Design and 3d Printing of a Robotic Arm

Conference Paper · May 2016

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Konstantinos Kitsakis Ilias Tanos

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John D. Kechagias
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 Design and 3d Printing of a Robot Arm
Konstantinos Kitsakis 1, Nikos Petrou 2 ,
Ilias Tanos 3, and John Kechagias 4

1, 4
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, TEI of Thessaly, Larissa, GR-41110, Greece
E-mails: 1 kitsakis@teithessaly.gr and 4 jkechag@teithessaly.gr

2,3
Digital Idea, Lithaiou 19, Larissa, GR-41335, Greece
E-mails: 2 petrou@digitalidea.gr and 3 tanos@digitalidea.gr

Abstract: 3D printing, a section of Additive Manufacturing, is the manufacturing process of three-

dimensional objects by printing or adding very thin layers of material. It is already widely used in Rapid
Prototyping, Rapid Manufacturing, Health, Dental, Orthopedics, Jewelry and Architecture while its usage
in other areas is constantly expanding. 3D objects are created in a digital form, either by designing, using a
Computer Aided Design application on a computer, or by scanning, using 3d digitizing devices or
photographs taken around the perimeter of the object. The digital form items having the appropriate data
format are guided in the three-dimensional printer, where they are converted into very thin horizontal slices
and sequentially printed one above the other, to produce the completed object. This presentation will
introduce the main design concepts and the 3D printing procedure of a robotic arm. The robotic arm has
one degree of freedom, namely one rotation axis and consists of two parts, a motor support base and the
controlled arm. The design of the two objects is done using the free 3D design application 123D Design from
AUTODESK. The first session presents the interface of the application and the navigation tools. Following
that is the design of the base object using the box, primitive tool. Modification, molding, alignment, and
combination techniques are applied, to obtain the desired form and the suitable slot for placement of the
servomotor. For the construction of the arm another method is been followed. An outline is firstly designed
with 2D drawing tools, such as rectangle, circle and polyline and when the 2D sketch is completed the
extrusion tool is applied perpendicular to the surface, for the creation of the 3D object arm. Finally, the two
objects are stored in an appropriate 3D file format (STL) that can be identified by 3D-printing applications.
Using the free application MakerBot, the file from the previous step is imported and positioning, rotation
and scaling on the virtual printing surface can be applied on the objects. The material to be used, quality,
speed and temperature of the head, usage of draft and support materials are the main printing options. The
Print Preview command shows all the individual levels from bottom to top which will be printed out and
create the integrated 3D object. At the final session the parts are printed out, checked and assembled to
complete the construction. The main purpose of this paper is to provide the procedures and settings needed
to construct 3D objects from scratch with easy to use but free software and cost effective printing devices.
 References
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2. Z Moza, K Kitsakis, J Kechagias, NM Vaxevanidis, Medical applications of 3D printing-A
dimensional accuracy investigation of low cost 3D printing, International Conference on Food and
Biosysterns Engineering 2, 306-311
3. Kechagias J, Anagnostopoulos V, Zervos S, Chryssolouris G: Estimation of build times in Rapid
Prototyping processes. Proceedings of the 6th European Conference on Rapid Prototyping and
Manufacturing -EuRP&M1997, University of Nottingham, UK; 01/1997
4. Chivu C, Rio-Belver RM, Kechagias J: Economic Engineering and Manufacturing Systems. Bulletin
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