Rat Rig is a Portuguese manufacturer of modular

3D printer 3D printing, or additive manufacturing, is the construction of a three-dimensional object from a CAD model or a digital 3D model. It can be done in a variety of processes in which material is deposited, joined or solidified under computer ...

s and

CNC machine Computer numerical control (CNC) or CNC machining is the automated control of machine tools by a computer. It is an evolution of numerical control (NC), where machine tools are directly managed by data storage media such as punched cards or ...

s based on structural aluminum profiles. They are known for their V-Core series of 3D printers, which are

CoreXY CoreXY is a technique used to move the printhead of a 3D printer or the toolhead in CNC machines in the horizontal plane. The advantage of this technique is that the two motors used to perform the movement in the horizontal plane are stationary and ...

printers with

open source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...

and

open hardware Open-source hardware (OSH, OSHW) consists of physical artifacts of technology designed and offered by the open-design movement. Both free and open-source software (FOSS) and open-source hardware are created by this open-source culture movement ...

. Along with Voron and VzBot, Rat Rig has been one of the pioneers in the commercialization of 3D printers with CoreXY

kinematics In physics, kinematics studies the geometrical aspects of motion of physical objects independent of forces that set them in motion. Constrained motion such as linked machine parts are also described as kinematics. Kinematics is concerned with s ...

, a printer type that has since been adopted by major commercial players such as Prusa,

Creality Creality ( zh, s=创想三维, t=創想三維, first=s, p=Chuàngxiǎng sānwéi, l=Create and think 3D), officially known as Shenzhen Creality 3D Technology Co, Ltd., is a Chinese 3D printer manufacturing company established in 2014, with hea ...

Bambu Lab Bambu Lab ( zh, s=拓竹, t=拓竹, p=Tuò zhú) is a consumer tech company that designs and manufactures desktop 3D printing, 3D printers. The company is based in Shenzhen, China, with locations in Shanghai and Greater Austin, Austin, Texas. It ...

, and others. Rat Rig has distinguished itself in that their printers can be constructed relatively large, with build volumes of up to 500×500×500 mm, compared to, for example, 250×210×210 mm for the reference printer

Prusa i3 The Prusa i3 is a family of fused filament fabrication 3D printers, manufactured by Czech company Prusa Research under the trademarked name Original Prusa i3. Part of the RepRap project, Prusa i3 printers were called the most used 3D printer in ...

or 350×350×350 mm for the (also relatively large)

Voron 2.4 Voron 2.4 (Russian: ''ворон'', raven) is a CoreXY 3D printer released in May 2020. It has open-source software and Open-source hardware, hardware, and requires Do it yourself, building by the user based on parts sourced individually or in ...

. They have stated that they are committed to

open design The open-design movement involves the development of physical products, machines and systems through use of publicly shared design information. This includes the making of both free and open-source software (FOSS) as well as open-source hardwar ...

principles, using mainly

standard Standard may refer to: Symbols * Colours, standards and guidons, kinds of military signs * Standard (emblem), a type of a large symbol or emblem used for identification Norms, conventions or requirements * Standard (metrology), an object ...

modular Module, modular and modularity may refer to the concept of modularity. They may also refer to: Computer science and engineering * Modular design, the engineering discipline of designing complex devices using separately designed sub-components ...

components that give users the freedom to modify or upgrade their products. They share

technical drawings Technical drawing, drafting or drawing, is the act and discipline of composing drawings that visually communicate how something functions or is constructed. Technical drawing is essential for communicating ideas in industry and engineering. ...

and

bill of materials A bill of materials or product structure (sometimes bill of material, BOM or associated list) is a list of the raw materials, sub-assemblies, intermediate assemblies, sub-components, parts, and the quantities of each needed to manufacture an Prod ...

, among other things.

History

The company Rat Rig was founded in 2014, initially focusing on manufacturing camera dollies for film and video production. They have since become a leading company in the 3D printing industry. In 2022, Rat Rig won the ''3D Printing Industry Award for Company of the Year'' in the personal printer category. They were ranked in the top 5% of

small and medium enterprises Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) or small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are businesses whose personnel and revenue numbers fall below certain limits. The abbreviation "SME" is used by many national agencies and international organizat ...

in Portugal in 2023 and 2024. In 2024, the V-Core 4 was nominated for the 3D Printing Industry Awards' ''Desktop FFF 3D Printer of the Year''.

V-Core

The Rat Rig V-Core is a

and flexible design. It is offered either as a kit complete with all the necessary parts, or with some parts omitted if, for example, the buyer wishes to use their own electronics. It requires technical knowledge for construction and calibration, but can be less expensive compared to competing pre-built 3D printers. The frame design allows it to be easily built with a closed chamber, allowing it to print temperature-sensitive materials such as ABS. The V-Core was introduced in 2017, and the V-Core 2 was released around 2018. In 2021, the V-Core 3 was released, gaining some popularity in the

maker movement The maker culture is a contemporary subculture representing a technology-based extension of DIY culture that intersects with hardware-oriented parts of hacker culture and revels in the creation of new devices as well as tinkering with existing o ...

as one of the first commercial high-speed CoreXY printers. The frame is currently made of 30×30 mm aluminum profiles (previously 20×20 mm) with T-slots, and is available with build volumes in the 4 sizes of (200³) mm, (300³) mm, (400³) mm and (500³) mm. It uses extruders and hotends based on the EVA system developed by Pawel Kucmus, which allows for the adaptation of many different extruders and hotends on the market for use on the V-Core. The build plate is not attached directly to the frame, but via ball joints at three independent points to prevent the build plate from twisting when it heats up, and the idea is that the heat will thus affect the flatness minimally. The balls are in turn attached to each their independent

leadscrew A leadscrew (or lead screw), also known as a power screw or translation screw,Bhandari, p. 202. is a screw used as a linkage in a machine, to translate turning motion into linear motion. Because of the large area of sliding contact between ...

and motor for adjusting the z-axis, which makes it easy to automatically

level Level or levels may refer to: Engineering *Level (optical instrument), a device used to measure true horizontal or relative heights * Spirit level or bubble level, an instrument designed to indicate whether a surface is horizontal or vertical *C ...

the build plate based on the positions of the motors. In 2024, the V-Core 4 was released, available in the 3 sizes (300³) mm, (400³) mm and (500³) mm. It features an "independent dual extrusion" (IDEX) mode for simultaneous use of two tool heads, allowing for printing with multiple materials at the same time.

Software

Rat Rig offers the software RatOS that runs on

Raspberry Pi Raspberry Pi ( ) is a series of small single-board computers (SBCs) developed in the United Kingdom by the Raspberry Pi Foundation in collaboration with Broadcom Inc., Broadcom. To commercialize the product and support its growing demand, the ...

and is based on

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

. RatOS automatically sets up some configuration files, has some useful macros, and controls the fans, among other things. It is also possible to use

Klipper Klipper is a clipboard manager for the KDE interface. It allows users of Unix-like operating systems running the KDE desktop environment to access a history of Wayland and X Selections, any item of which can be reselected for pasting. It can al ...

and

Mainsail OS A mainsail is a sail rigged on the main mast of a sailing vessel. * On a square rigged vessel, it is the lowest and largest sail on the main mast. * On a fore-and-aft rigged vessel, it is the sail rigged aft of the main mast. The sail's foot i ...

without RatOS, for example if you want to use other features than those available in RatOS.

User communities

RatRig has active user communities that share projects, tips, and experiences on various online forums and social media. The community contributes to the development of new ideas and solutions, and provides support for both beginners and experienced builders.

References

External links