Robot: hard worker, seeks job in additive manufacturing

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I was going to title this blog post “Where’s R2-D2?” but remembered that my editor allows me only one Star Wars reference per year. (Note: You’ve reached your quota for 2020.—Ed.) There are plenty of other robot references I could have pulled out: CHAPPiE, Baymax, and WALL-E among them.

But I’d prefer to spend my limited word count wondering why the advanced manufacturing technology known as 3D printing utilizes so few of these helpful little droids.

Maybe robots are used more than I know. I write far less about additive manufacturing than I like, and therefore talk to fewer 3D printing people than the likes of Terry Wohler or my editor at The Additive Report. So it may simply be I haven’t come across the additive automation solutions that, in my opinion, the industry desperately needs if it’s to scale up as it should. (If you know of any examples, shoot me an e-mail.)

I’ve seen a few hints that automation solutions are coming. There’s the DMP Factory platform, a collaboration between 3D Systems and GF Machining. No one from either company has told me that it’s robot-ready, although it seems to have all the necessary pieces. Formlabs appears to be moving in this direction with its print farms, as does Prusa Research, Markforged, and others. None, however, seem to use robots for the menial tasks of spool-reloading or finished-part removal.

I did have a chance to chat with Gabe Bentz recently. The CEO of Slant 3D told me that none of his 300-plus Mason printers has a robotic attendant, although all have automatic ejection capabilities, not unlike the ones found on many plastic-injection-molding machines. As a result, his machine-to-operator ratio is 100:1, compared to the 15:1 or lower (often far lower) ratio typical of most 3D print farms.

The only robot I’ve seen in close proximity to a 3D printer was in a photo from Voodoo Manufacturing, in which a UR10 robotic arm from Universal Robots was being used to swap out build plates. A little Googling informed me that the robot’s name is Luke, and that he’s part of the Brooklyn, N.Y., 3D printing bureau’s automation initiative, Project Skywalker.

I would have chosen K-2SO, the name of the droid in the Rogue One episode of the Star Wars saga. Regardless, I wish the Voodoo folks luck—and may the Force be with them.

Voodoo uses a robotic arm in its Brooklyn 3D printing bureau.Voodoo Manufacturing