Voron Design

Voron Design is a nonprofit organization that develops specifications for free and open hardware. They have developed specifications for several 3D printers and have been described as a revival of the RepRap project.^[1]

Voron 2.4 is a modern 3D printer with CoreXY, stepper motors in open-loop control and with the open-source firmware Klipper that introduced input shaping

Users must assemble the parts themselves from bill of materials or kits from third-party suppliers.^[2] The open specifications and extensive use of off-the-shelf products make the printers highly maintainable, modular, and expandable. This provides great flexibility in configuration, no lock-in to proprietary systems, and good repairability.

The project helped popularize CoreXY printers (along with other open source projects such as the Rat Rig V-Core and VzBot 330), and has greatly influenced commercial printer designs.^[3] The company Sovol has implemented the designs in the Sovol SV08 (Voron 2.4 clone) and Sovol Zero (Voron 0.2 clone).^[3] The project has also led to increased use and development of the Klipper firmware, which has added new techniques for high-speed printing such as input shaping and pressure advance, as well as broader support for more microcontrollers.

History

The Voron project was started by Russian Maksim Zolin (pseudonym russiancatfood, RCF) who wanted a better, faster, and quieter 3D printer. He built a printer and started the company MZ-Bot based on open source ideology.^[4] He used the GitHub repo mzbotreprap.

In 2015, the Voron Geared Extruder was released as the first design to use the Voron name.^[5] In 2015, Zolin sold the first 18 printers as kits (Voron 1.0, later renamed Voron Trident, and quite similar to the later Voron Legacy), and marked them with serial numbers.^[6] In March 2016, the first Voron printer was publicly released^[5] via the company MZ-Bot.^[4]

The V24 was an experimental model with a build volume of 24×24×24" (610×610×610 mm). Only two were built, laying the foundation for the later Voron2.^[5] By February 2019, over 100 Voron2 printers had been built and assigned serial numbers, and a year later in 2020, the number had increased to 350 Voron2 printers. The Voron2.0 was never officially launched.^[5]

Zolin found that he did not want to run a company and instead decided to release his work fully to the outside world, inviting others to collaborate with him.^[7] The tradition of marking new builds with serial numbers has lived on, and users who build their own Voron printer can be assigned their own serial number as proof of the hard work they have put into sourcing parts, assembling, and configuring the printer.

In May 2020, Voron2.4 was launched, and over 2,500^[5] printers were registered with serial numbers before the 2.4R2 version was launched in February 2022.^[8] In 2021, Voron Trident was launched. Voron 0.2 has also achieved great popularity.

Models

The project has evolved into several models targeting different use cases. All designs are released under open licenses so that users can build, modify, and improve upon the designs. Some popular models include the Voron 0.2, Voron 2.4, and Voron Trident, all of which are CoreXY filament printers.

Some well-known specifications include:

• Voron 1: Original design from around 2015-2016. Build volume of 250×250×230 mm (V1.8), bed-dropper build plate, CoreXY, open chamber.
• Voron 0^[9] / 0.1^[10] / 0.2^[11]: A CoreXY designed to be compact, portable and very fast due to a rigid frame and short belts, with a build volume of only 120×120×120 mm.
  • Voron 0 has belt-driven z-axis and a Bowden extruder.
  • Voron 0.1 (launched 2021^[12]) is a significant upgrade with easier assembly, direct-drive extruder, simpler electronics and a heated bed, but at the cost of some increase in the printer's height
  • Voron 0.2 (launched 2023^[13]) is a further development with hinged top-cover, new standard tool head and new linear rails
• Voron 2.4:^[14] Launched in May 2020. Distinguishes itself from most other CoreXY designs by having a flying gantry frame and fixed build plate. The support frame is vertically controlled by four motors for automatic tramming. Build volumes of 250³, 300³ or 350³ mm.
• Voron Trident:^[15] Launched 2021.^[16] Fixed gantry and bed-dropper build plate with automatic three-point leveling (hence the name) through z-tilt. Simpler design than Voron 2.4 with fewer parts,^[17] and more similar to the original. Build volume of 250³, 300³ or 350³ mm.
• Voron Switchwire:^[18] Modification of Mendel / Prusa i3 / Ender 3 that converts from Cartesian to CoreXZ kinematics with linear rails and belts. Build volume of 250×210×210 mm.
• Voron Legacy:^[19][20] Nostalgic project to recreate the spirit of the first Voron 1.0 printers. Build volume of 230×230×240 mm. Simpler design with open chamber, cylindrical rods instead of linear rails, but with the modern Afterburner tool head.
• Voron Phoenix: Ongoing development project to create a large-scale printer (the size of a Rat Rig V-Core).^[21][22]
• Voron Cascade: Ongoing development project to create a CNC milling machine.^[23]
• Doron Velta: Not an official Voron printer, but a printer that started as a joke since it was assumed the Voron team did not want to develop a delta printer.^[24][25] Doron Velta construction kits are offered by Fysetc.^[24]

Build process

3D-printed parts are needed to build the printers, but if the user is unable to make these themself they can be purchased via the Print It Forward (PIF) program.^[26][27][28] It is possible to purchase all other parts on the open market, but kits are also offered by LDO motors,^[29] Formbot,^[30] FYSETC,^[31] SIBOOR and Magic Phoenix.

Modifications

Toolhead on a Voron 2.4, here with a hotend and direct-drive extruder

An active user community maintains specifications, shares experiences, improvements and modifications. This contributes to continuous development and improvement, and there are several types of adaptations, extensions and further developments.

Popular modifications include:

• Toolheads (hotend, in the case of direct-drive also extruder), both commercial products from E3D, Bondtech, Bambu, Phaetus, Slice Engineering, and more, and open community designs such as Dragon, Afterburner, Stealthburner, Xol.^[32] Modifications include CPAP fan for powerful cooling.
  • Tool-changer: Stealtchanger,^[33] Tapchanger,^[34] MadMax,^[35]
  • Nozzle-changer: Bondtech INDX^[36]
  • Filament changer (multi-material, for using several different materials or filaments in the same nozzle): Enraged Rabbit Carrot Feeder,^[37] BoxTurtle^[38]
  • Several extruders simultaneously: Independent dual extruder (IDEX)
• Automatic scanning and mesh compensation for unevenness in the print surface (mechanical probes such as BLTouch / CR Touch, inductive probes, capacitive probes, optical/IR probes, strain gauge/piezo probes, microswitches, optical scanning with Beacon or Cartographer 3D, or eddy current probes)
• AWD with 4 xy motors instead of 2 for using shorter belts
• Reinforced brackets and lighter gantry
• Double shear motor mounts for tighter belts
• Controller cards: BTT Octopus,^[39] Spider, SKR, Fysetc Spider, and so on
• CAN bus or USB for simpler cabling
• Inverted electronics and pull-out electronics for easier access for maintenance
• Panels and lighting: Doomcube

See also

• CoreXY, technique for two-dimensional motion control
• Klipper (firmware), open source firmware for 3D printers that is distributed between a computer and a microcontroller
• List of open-source hardware projects
• Open-source hardware, hardware whose design documents are openly available to and can be modified by others
• OpenStructures, an open specification for modular interfaces in hardware based on a geometric grid
• Raspberry Pi, a computer the size of a credit card