A new company offers an intriguing 3D print farm solution.
Cosmyx is a French company that emerged from the pandemic in 2021. The founders were deeply involved in ad-hoc print farming to produce necessary pandemic gear. Following the emergency, they found themselves as experts in 3D print farms. It seems that they made the obvious move to commercialize their knowledge by creating Cosmyx.
The company offers a number of products, but it’s really a giant toolkit of components one might put together to form a 3D print farm to meet any requirements.
The key component is, of course, the 3D printer. Cosmyx offers two choices: The Nova and Super Nova. Both are H-Bot systems. H-Bot is a motion system somewhat reminiscent of CoreXY, but involves two motors and a single belt to implement XY movement. The Z-axis simply moves the plate up and down, making the in-progress print stationary during printing. That’s ideal for high-speed operations.
And indeed, Cosmyx offers high-speed 3D printing, with print speeds apparently up to an amazing 800mm/s, which is higher than most other high-speed devices that tend to top out at 500-600mm/s.
The Nova’s build volume is very generous at 300 x 200 x 270 mm, while the Super Nova is much larger at 300x 300 x 600 mm. Both offer single or dual toolheads.
The interesting part is how these are combined to form a 3D print farm. Cosmyx offers two styles of cabinet to house these devices, the Nexus and the Mira.
The Nexus is a “single column” of devices, and you can mix and match either type of 3D printer. There are plenty of add-ons that can be selected, including:
- Activated carbon and HEPA H13 certified EN-1822 filter
- Telescopic slide system
- Filament dryer
- Drying station
- Hygrometry and temperature sensors
The Mira is the more advanced option, as it is much larger and can carry two rows of three 3D printers, with the bottom row reserved for material spools. It’s possible to connect any number of these “factories” together to form a large print farm.
What’s most interesting to me is the possibility of continuous 3D printing. Cosmyx offers an auto-eject feature for their 3D printers. This option involves cooling the print plate, then using the existing toolhead to bump the print off the plate.
But there’s more. Cosmyx offers a housing that can ensure the ejected prints fall straight down, along with a kind of collector tray at the bottom. This, as you can see, pours completed parts into a basket for later processing.
That should work for most applications, but sometimes the prints are more complex and require special handling when completed. For these, Cosmyx offers a different solution: a robotic arm can automatically collect print plates as they are produced and replace them with empty plates for subsequent print jobs.
Both approaches enable continuous 3D printing, and very substantially reduce the need for human labor to process completed print jobs.
Cosmyx told us they’ve specifically designed all their systems for minimal maintenance. For example, the heat block can be quickly replaced with only one bolt.
That, combined with the continuous printing mode, makes for a highly productive print farm. Cosmyx explained that only one full-time operator is required to manage up to 60 3D printers with their system.
That’s quite impressive, and should be on the list for anyone looking to set up a 3D print farm.
Via Cosmyx
