Working 3D Printed Escalator Model

A working tabletop escalator: 3D printed steps, handrails and gears, turned by a small battery-powered motor and built to run on a desk.

Service

Product Development & Prototyping

What it shows

A step chain that really goes round

How it is made

FDM-printed parts, held together with steel screws

Start a prototype

What we brought

Moving parts that work

We print mechanisms that actually move

The steps link into one chain that loops round the frame, driven through a pair of printed gears.

Electronics built in

Motor, battery and switch fitted inside

A small motor, battery, slide switch and USB-C port sit inside the printed frame, out of the way.

Easy to understand

A machine anyone can read at a glance

Cut-outs in the side frames leave the gears, wiring and battery in view, so the mechanism explains itself.

The brief

Step 1 of 4

Moving part: One continuous chain of steps
Drive: A small motor, through printed gears
Power: A battery, with an on/off switch

At Additive Inn, our 3D printing studio in Singapore, we designed and built a working escalator small enough for a desk. The steps had to move as one chain, with handrails, a gear drive and its own power.

Production

Step 2 of 4

The side frames, step chain, handrails and gears were 3D printed in house: white for the frame and handrails, grey for the steps and gears. Each step is its own printed link in the chain.

Close-up looking up the escalator: grey printed steps with fine layer lines, between the white looped handrails — Printed steps between the looped handrails.

Close-up of two grey printed spur gears meshing on the white side frame, with red and black wiring and the battery visible through a cut-out — The printed gears that drive the steps.

Build & assembly

Step 3 of 4

We fitted the motor, battery, wiring and a slide switch inside the frame, meshed the gears and bolted both side frames together with steel screws.

The back of the escalator model: the step chain wrapped round the top, the motor and wiring underneath, a slide switch and a USB-C port in the white end panel — Motor, switch and USB-C port at the back.

The escalator model from a rear corner: the two grey gears on the side frame, the battery and wiring through the cut-out and the switch at the back — The gear drive, battery and switch together.

The final build

Step 4 of 4

A finished escalator that runs on its own power: the steps travel round under looped handrails, and the open sides show how it works.

The finished escalator model from the other front corner: grey steps climbing under the white handrails, the bottom of the step chain wrapping round below — The steps climbing under the handrails.

Working 3D Printed Escalator Model