3DQue announced they intend on performing a lengthy demonstration of continuous 3D printing of “up to 1000 hours”.
If you’ve not heard of 3DQue, it’s likely because they are a new entrant in the continuous 3D printing space, having launched only a couple of years ago. It was founded by then-teenager Mateo Pekic, who invented a method of reliably releasing prints from FFF 3D printers.
I’m not quite certain how it works, but from what I understand the key is the chemistry of their print surface, combined with specific thermal sequences. Their typical implementation is to install their bed solution on an inexpensive desktop device. The 3D printer is then tipped sideways or at an angle, which allows the completed prints to simply slide off when done. This approach means you can convert many inexpensive devices into powerful farm-ready devices if used with 3DQue’s associated software.
Now the company announced they’re about to take on a difficult test: a 1000 hour stress test, and they’re intending on doing it live on YouTube.
For the test it appears they’ll be using their standard base platform, the Creality Ender 3. However, this test also involves a bit of a twist: they’re upgrading the extruder.
For this stressful experiment 3DQue will swap out the stock Creality toolhead and replace it with a US$330 Dyze configuration. It will include the DyzeXtruder Pro and DyzEnd Pro hot end, and should perform substantially better than the Creality components.
Note that the cost of this toolhead is almost double the cost of the base 3D printer!
Why do this toolhead swap? 3DQue explains:
“After the tests, we will analyze reliability, durability, print quality, and print speed, and compare that to a normal hotend+extruder.”
In other words, their 1000 hour stress test will most likely demonstrate the throughput possibilities of 3D print farms using their technology.
3D print farms are not a new thing, but they tend to suffer from two afflictions.
First, they require constant attention to unload completed 3D prints. That issue should be alleviated with 3DQue’s automated unload capability.
Secondly, 3D print farms are expensive unless you equipment them with low-cost units. But those low-cost units can also lower the reliability and require repairs. By swapping in the Dyze Design components, I suspect 3DQue is attempting to overcome this potential issue.
The event is to be presented live on YouTube starting tomorrow, Wednesday May 5th at 1730 PDT (GMT-8).
This demonstration is to be a live event, and it’s not clear whether 3DQue will broadcast the entire 1000 hours of 3D printing. That’s almost 42 days of continuous activity, a very long time, so very few will watch the entire show.
But the results will certainly be quite interesting.
