Bowden Vs direct drive.
Posted: Wed Jan 01, 2014 5:42 pm
Are there any reasons other than extruders on Delta printers to use a Bowden drive instead of a direct drive?
You use a Bowden arrangement to reduce the weight of the moving platform, by leaving the cold end and the extruder stepper stationary.
Reducing the weight reduces the inertia, allows for faster motion/more agressive acceleration.
The down side is it introduces hysteresis to the extrusion process, and as a result requires more, more agressive retraction to overcome.
Setup properly with a good Hotend and extruder, this is usually not a big issue.