A novel 5-axis robot for printing high resolution pictures from media on 3D wide surfaces

A novel 5-axis robot for industrial large printing applications is presented in this paper. The robot was developed at the LMS¹ from Poitiers University and an international patent was deposited for this invention in 2006. It concerns large format three-dimensional printing on a fixed surface, like trailer tarpaulin for example. The robot is composed by an inkjet printing block and a device to dry the ink sprayed onto the surface. Kinematics of the mechanical device with 5 degrees of freedom was studied to position and orientate the printheads onto the surface to be printed. The structure of the robot is simple with high speed capability and printing resolution. The working principle and mechanical structure are described and the geometrical model and control of the robot are also discussed. Finally printing results illustrate the efficiency of the proposed 3D printing robot.