July 2019

| SOLUTIONS | generally cheaper than larger machines. An average SME could easily buy several small 3D printers – perhaps even three or four - for the price of one large machine and expand its 3D print capacity as needed. In this way, it can scale according to its prototyping printing needs. Additional printers can easily be integrated into an existing network and controlled through one interface. 2. Need for speed A networked, stacked system is generally faster than individual 3D printers, which can help SMEs boost efficiency and productivity. Firstly, a stacked system enables several people to use 3D printers at the same time without having to wait in a queue of engineers. With a couple of stacked 3D printers on their desktop, a design engineer can try out different ideas, tweak them and set the next print going, evolving the design as they go. This not only enhances speed, but also accuracy in design. Secondly, stacked 3D printers can speed up the overall design workflow by ‘spreading’ risk across multiple machines. Normally, if a print fails on a large platform all you can do is restart the whole process from scratch. If, however, that print is spread across multiple platforms then only the print that fails will need to be restarted while the other printers will continue at speed. A large print can, for example, be split into smaller prints, across multiple machines, and reassembled at the end. 3. Size matters Space is often a precious resource in small-to-medium industrial facilities and keeping machine footprint to a minimum is a priority. This is where stacked systems come in. A 3D printer typically has a substantial footprint and even a small one is roughly the same as an average 2D printer. Stick two on a desk and space quickly starts to run out, three and it’s time to move. If, however, they are placed one on top of the other footprint will be kept to a minimum. All that’s needed is a ‘piece of furniture’ such as CEL’s Stacker for desktop or a floor standing Tree. For a stack to work smoothly, however, printers will need to feature an enclosed design and filament reels that are easily accessible on the side. 4. Anyone can be a 3D printing pro A stacked system can be very easy to install and use even without previous experience in 3D printing. Once the stack of 3D printers is in place the next step is connecting each of them in a network. All it takes is a network-enabled device such as Root acting as a hub. This enables each of the printers to communicate with the software so the user can select what models they want to print on each machine. With the right 3D printer software in place, using a stacked system becomes even easier. The software’s main role is to communicate with the hub and send the print information through to each of the printers. To make things easy a secondary touch screen device can be added. For www.smartmachinesandfactories.com July 2019 | 25 | smart plastics igus ® Caswell Road Northampton NN4 7PW Tel 01604 677240 Fax 01604 677242 sales@igus.co.uk plastics for longer life ® Industry 4.0: smart plastics eliminate downtimes Intelligent products give a maintenance alert ahead of time and can be integrated into standard predictive maintenance; smart plas- tics allow your equipment to run continuously as well as reducing maintenance costs. igus.co.uk/smart Avoid unplanned downtime 08:11