Delta Practicality

Ever since I seen the delta style 3D printers I find them uniquely interesting. I have wondered how well that setup would work with a plasma cutter. I know a build of this style would present limitations on table size. But in my situation my normal sheet size is 15” x 24”. I cut thin steel in high alloy materials for custom blades. With my 45XP the thin steel needs to be cut so fast it is at the limit of my tables rigidity 200” or so. Dont get me wrong I love my table and it’s all I could ever hop for but I’m always thinking of new and better improvements.

My big question is what do you think the practical speed of a delta set up could be. It seams like it could be quite quick as gravity is your friend and your using 3 axis for x, y and Z. Torch mount would be simple and the lead would just feed right out the top so drag chains and all the wiring that goes with them would mostly be eliminated.

This post is just a “what if” kinda topic. Looking to kick around Ideas.

Maybe this might help,

Actually, these robots are used for pick and place precisely because they are VERY accurate and very fast since the arms are very light. This at least in comparison to the usual serial manipulators you see building cars.
However personally I don't see any particular advantage to a cartesian machine unless a 6 axis version is used for 3D objects that requires the orientation of the torch.
I don't have a plasma cutter so I have no idea if there really is an advantage to justify the seriously constrained work space.
Personally this reminds me of all the videos of 6 axis manipulators milling a circle in a piece of foam. Basically a proof of concept and proof that someone got the kinematics right.
But with deltas you can also build machines with just 3 motors so that seems a little less overly complicated.

I'm always astonished how fast my 3d printer deltas move with good precision. But i guess that the cabling of a torch is quite stiff. And you need quite some hight as otherwise the angles of the arms gets quite unfavorable.

I had one richrap 3dr in 2013 and was very time consuming to get dimensional accuracy in the printed parts, was +/- 0.5mm and I compensated when modeled the parts, using my eustathios a get 0.2mm after one day of assembly and calibration of the printer.

Here if we use one delta for plasma cutter i believe if everyone use it in few weeks the arms broken or badly misalignment

Really fast, impressive the camera dont lost focus with that speed. Very solid the frame and get away with vibration.
To the OP get the same speed of his actual table the frame will need to be very solid (welded), maybe use anchor to the floor and table.
The first video probably with high speed the frame will vibrate a lot.
Here in Japan using big delta we need to have security fence around it by law and if the fence open need to stop it, usually people here make box frame and use it like a fence.