For years, the 3D printing community believed one simple truth: if you wanted pure speed, you bought a Delta printer. But in 2025, the loud sound of high-speed CoreXY printers is challenging that old belief. The race is closer than it has ever been.
The main question is this: Has the CoreXY motion system, powered up by modern technology, finally caught up to or even beaten the famous speed of Delta printers?
This article gives you a deep, fact-based comparison. We will break down how these machines work, look at the game-changing technologies, and give you a clear answer on who wins the speed battle today. We will go beyond simple good and bad points to study real speed—the combination of how fast something moves, how quickly it speeds up, and print quality.
This guide is for the smart maker who wants to understand the "why" behind speed claims and make a smart choice for their next printer.
How These Systems Work
The CoreXY System
How It Works
The CoreXY system works on a smart idea of coordinated movement. Two stepper motors, both attached to the printer's frame, drive one single, long, continuous belt that follows a complex, crossing path. By turning these motors in the same or opposite directions, the system can exactly position the print head anywhere on the XY plane. Think of it as a very precise, automated drawing table, where movement along each direction comes from combined motor input.
Key Design Ideas
- Low Moving Weight: Because the heavy stepper motors stay still, the part they move is much lighter than in many other designs. This reduction in moving weight is a basic element for reaching high speeds.
- Built-in Frame Strength: CoreXY printers are almost always built within a cube-shaped frame. This structure is naturally strong and stable, giving an excellent foundation to fight against the powerful forces created during rapid speeding up and direction changes.
- Still Bed: The print bed typically moves only up and down on the Z-axis. This is a critical advantage, as the printed part itself is not subjected to violent side-to-side motion, which can cause problems or even knock off a print at high speeds.
The Delta System
How It Works
A Delta printer is an amazing example of parallel movement systems. It has three vertical arms, each driven by its own motor, connected to a central part that holds the hotend. By precisely controlling the height of each of these three arms, the system can position the part at any XYZ coordinate within its cylindrical build space. The motion is smooth and non-linear, looking like three highly coordinated robot arms working in perfect harmony.
Key Design Ideas
- Extremely Low Moving Weight: This is the Delta's defining feature. The only parts that move are the three lightweight arms and the very small central part (hotend, fans, probe). This incredibly low weight allows for theoretically huge acceleration potential.
- Parallel Movement: All three motors work together for every single move, regardless of direction. This shared workload contributes to the system's quickness and responsiveness.
- Tall Build Space: The three-tower design naturally creates a build space that is much taller than it is wide, making it a specialist for printing objects like vases, rockets, and building models.
The Classic Era Speed King
The Weight-Movement Advantage
For a long time, the equation for speed in 3D printing was controlled by a single variable: minimizing moving weight. In the world of physics, Force = Weight × Acceleration. To achieve higher acceleration with a given motor force, you had to reduce the weight. Here, the Delta printer's advantage was absolute and undeniable. Its featherlight part, weighing just a few dozen grams, stood in stark contrast to the comparatively heavy moving parts of older CoreXY and Cartesian machines. This allowed a Delta to change direction with incredible agility, doing rapid, short movements without introducing significant vibration or weight-related problems into the print. It was the undisputed champion of acceleration.
Early CoreXY Limitations
In this same era, early CoreXY designs, while conceptually sound, were held back by their hardware and software. Moving parts were often built from heavier components like V-slot rails with bulky wheel assemblies. Frames, while cubic, might lack the bracing and precision to handle extreme forces. Pushing the acceleration on these older CoreXY printers would immediately overwhelm the system's ability to manage vibration, resulting in severe print quality problems, most notably "ringing" or "ghosting"—a visible echo of features on the print surface. The practical speed limit was not dictated by the power of the motors, but by the frame's inability to reduce the vibrations that speed created.
The 2025 Game-Changer
The Software Revolution
What is Input Shaping?
Modern software, particularly Klipper, introduced a technology that fundamentally changed the speed equation: input shaping, also known as vibration compensation. In simple terms, the printer uses an accelerometer to measure its own natural vibrational frequencies—the specific way the frame and moving parts "wobble" when moving. The software then calculates and applies precise counter-movements to the motor commands to actively cancel out these vibrations before they can affect the print head. It's like noise-canceling headphones for motion, eliminating the machine's own vibrating "noise."
The CoreXY Magic Solution
Input shaping has been a "magic solution" for the CoreXY system. It directly targets and neutralizes the CoreXY's single greatest historical weakness: moving part vibration. The naturally strong cube frame is fantastic at containing and absorbing immense acceleration forces, and now, input shaping ensures that the print head remains perfectly steady throughout these violent maneuvers. This allows a modern CoreXY to use its powerful motors and strong frame to their full potential, achieving massive acceleration values while producing prints that are virtually free of ringing.
The Hardware Arms Race
Lighter, Stiffer Moving Parts
The software revolution was met with a parallel evolution in hardware. The community and manufacturers moved away from heavy steel rods and V-slot wheels toward ultralight and incredibly stiff components. The use of carbon fiber tubes or rods for moving part cross-members, combined with high-quality linear rails, has dramatically reduced the moving weight of the CoreXY moving part, further closing the mechanical gap with the Delta's part.
Plastic Flow Breakthrough
A printer can only move as fast as its hotend can melt plastic. For years, this was a major bottleneck. A printer might be capable of 500 mm/s travel speeds, but if the hotend could only melt enough plastic for 150 mm/s printing, the motion advantage was pointless. The development of high-flow hotends—with extended melt zones and specialized nozzle geometry—has been a critical enabler. These systems can now achieve plastic flow rates exceeding 30-40+ mm³/s, finally allowing the extrusion system to keep pace with the motion capabilities of printers running at 20,000+ mm/s² accelerations.
Stronger Motors and Drivers
The demand for radical acceleration required more torque. This has led to the widespread adoption of more powerful NEMA17 stepper motors and even larger motor sizes in some custom builds. These are paired with advanced Trinamic stepper motor drivers that provide not only the necessary power but also smoother, quieter, and more precise micro-stepping control, ensuring that the immense power is applied with finesse.
Head-to-Head in 2025
Redefining "Speed"
In 2025, a single "mm/s" number is a misleading marketing metric. True, usable speed is a combination of three factors:
* Peak Travel Speed: This is the maximum speed the print head can reach on a long, straight line. While impressive, most prints consist of shorter movements where this speed is never reached. Both modern CoreXY and Delta systems can achieve very high numbers here, making it a less useful point of comparison.
* Real Acceleration: This is the real battleground. It is the machine's ability to get up to speed and slow down almost instantly. High acceleration is what drastically reduces print times on complex models with many direction changes. This is where the interplay of weight, strength, and software compensation becomes most important.
* Print Quality at Speed: The ultimate measure. Can the printer maintain dimensional accuracy, good layer adhesion, and a clean surface finish when pushed to its limits? Speed without quality is useless.
Comparison Analysis Table
| Feature | High-Speed CoreXY (with Input Shaping) | Modern Delta | Practical Winner (2025) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Real Acceleration | Extremely High. The strong frame and input shaping allow it to use high acceleration effectively across the entire build plate. | Theoretically Highest. Lowest moving weight. However, may be limited by frame/arm flex at extreme values. | CoreXY. Wins in practical, usable acceleration that results in a high-quality print. |
| Print Quality at Speed | Excellent. Consistent quality from corner to corner due to linear movement and vibration compensation. | Very Good. Can suffer from minor dimensional inaccuracies at the outer edges of the build plate due to complex mathematical calculations and arm geometry. | CoreXY. |
| Structural Strength | Superior. The enclosed cube is naturally more stable and resistant to twisting forces than a three-tower structure. | Good to High. Highly dependent on component quality. Susceptible to frame flex if not perfectly built. | CoreXY. |
| Calibration & Tuning | Moderate. Belt tension is critical but axes are straightforward. Auto Z-offset and bed leveling are standard. | Complex. Requires careful calibration of arm lengths, tower positions, and delta radius. Small errors are magnified. | CoreXY. |
| Build Volume & Footprint | Efficient. Square build plate in a square footprint. Excellent for general-purpose printing. | Inefficient for general use. Tall, cylindrical build volume on a large circular/triangular footprint. | Use-Case Dependent. CoreXY is a better all-rounder; Delta is a specialist for tall objects. |
| Enclosure for Materials | Easy. The cube frame is simple to panel and enclose for printing high-temp materials like ABS/ASA. | Difficult. The tall, open frame and moving arms make effective enclosure a significant DIY project. | CoreXY. |
The Verdict
The Short Answer
No.
The Detailed Explanation
In a practical, real-world sense, the Delta printer's raw movement speed advantage has been neutralized and, in many cases, surpassed. The complete system advancements in high-speed CoreXY printers have created a platform that is more than the sum of its parts. The combination of a supremely strong frame, powerful and precise hardware, and intelligent software with input shaping allows a CoreXY to achieve and use higher real acceleration with greater print quality and consistency. The performance bottleneck has shifted from pure movement (where Delta once ruled) to total system integration and vibration management—an area where the modern CoreXY architecture now excels.
Who Should Choose Which?
Choose a High-Speed CoreXY if...
- Your top priority is the best all-around performance: a blend of high speed, exceptional print quality, and reliability.
- You want a versatile machine for a wide variety of print sizes and shapes, from small functional parts to large cosplay items.
- You plan to print with engineering-grade materials like ABS, ASA, PC, or Nylon and need a system that is easy to enclose for temperature stability.
- You value a more direct path to high-speed success and prefer a system that is generally easier to calibrate and maintain.
Choose a Delta if...
- You are a dedicated hobbyist who loves the mechanical elegance, visual appeal, and unique tuning challenge of a parallel movement system.
- Your primary print models are tall, narrow objects like vases, towers, or rocket bodies, where maximizing Z-height is more important than build plate area.
- The mesmerizing, non-linear motion of the printer is a significant part of the enjoyment for you.
- You are building a printer from scratch and are intrigued by the pure engineering pursuit of minimizing moving weight to its absolute theoretical limit.
A New Champion
The reign of the Delta as the undisputed speed king has come to an end. While its design remains a marvel of low-weight movement, the CoreXY platform, through a complete revolution in hardware and software, has risen to become the new benchmark for practical, high-quality, high-speed 3D printing in 2025.
The "winner" in this battle is ultimately the user. This intense competition has pushed innovation forward at an incredible pace, giving us faster, better, and more capable machines than ever before. The choice is no longer about which is "faster," but which is the right tool for your specific journey in 3D printing.