Ulendo announced a new program to massively increase the speed of certain industrial 3D printers.
High-speed 3D printing has now become a de facto standard in the desktop 3D printing world. The technology involves tuning up the motion system and, more specifically, using advanced firmware that provides compensation for vibrations encountered when the toolhead moves quickly. High-speed 3D printers are able to produce objects very quickly — without compromising part quality.
Ulendo is a software company that has developed a method of implementing advanced vibration compensation and has successfully deployed this technology to several platforms. Their algorithm is now commercialized as “Ulendo VC”, for “Vibration Compensation”. They explain the issue:
“Vibration has long plagued FDM printers, limiting speed and build quality. Furthermore, vibration-driven quality issues such as ‘ghosting,’ ‘ringing,’ and ‘layer shifting’ are amplified on large industrial FDM printers, significantly limiting their performance. While previously available solutions such as ‘input shaping’ may be sufficient for hobbyist desktop printers, they cannot solve the challenges faced by professional users operating industrial FDM printers at high speed. Ulendo VC solves this challenge through a unique, patented software algorithm that counteracts vibration in real time, leading to significantly higher speeds and high-quality results on every build.”
In the desktop 3D print world, there are many choices for high-speed equipment. It’s now inconceivable that anyone would purchase a “slow” machine. Even those operating older and slower equipment should now dump those machines and replace them with much faster machines of today. Slow machines are obsolete.
This is easy to do if the machines cost only a few hundred dollars, as is the case in the desktop 3D print environment.
But what if you are operating an older, slower industrial 3D printer that is still being depreciated or on lease? You can’t easily replace it in most cases, so you’re stuck with those slow print speeds for a considerable time.
Now there’s an answer from Ulendo, at least for some equipment.
In a partnership with Rev1, they are offering the ability to perform a software upgrade on CreatBot F430 industrial 3D printers to enable a 5X print speed upgrade. Rev1 is a major US reseller of CreatBot industrial 3D partners, based in Michigan.
The upgrade changes the F430 from a print speed of 50mm/s with 600mm/s/s acceleration to a machine that can print at 250mm/s with 3,000mm/s/s acceleration. That’s quite significant for an industrial machine that is intended to run 24/7. For part throughput, it’s like suddenly acquiring an additional 4-5 machines!
Ulendo and Rev1 say that part quality is not compromised at all from this upgrade, and that parts are simply printed faster.
Rev1 can apply this upgrade to newly purchased F430s, or install it on existing equipment.
There was no word on pricing for this upgrade, but it will certainly be far less than replacing the F430 and especially less than adding more machines.
Ulendo said the F430 is the first device to undergo the upgrade treatment, as they intend to offer upgrades for more equipment. They said:
“Later this year, Rev1 and Ulendo will offer a similar software upgrade for other printers in CreatBot’s large-size and high-temperature series.”
I’m sure they’re speaking with other industrial 3D printer manufacturers about similar deals. We may see a dramatic speed up of equipment in the next year.
And those manufacturers of slow-speed industrial 3D printers might have concerns about the future.
