Daniil Kovalenko, a student at NSTU - NETI, and a team of developers have created a high-performance 3D printer with an automation system that reduces the costs of serial 3D printing of parts.
"I had the idea a long time ago, I took up development when I myself encountered problems printing a series of parts. He started developing the printer on the basis of the Technopark of School No. 112, invited Konstantin Paliychuk and Konstantin Stepanov to the team, and within a year, we developed and assembled the first prototype of the device. We tested it for quite a long time, identified flaws, and eventually brought it to the MVP level (a minimally viable product), made a website, and started promoting it," said Daniil Kovalenko, the author of the project, a first year student at the Faculty of Radio Engineering and Electronics at NSTU NETI.
At the Department of Design and Technology of Radioelectronic Devices, under the leadership of Alexey Bizyaev, the team is currently working on improving the printer and developing a new model. The department creates opportunities for the implementation of the project and, provides specialized technical assistance and support. In November, the All4makers Neuron 3D Printer project won first place in the NSTU NETI Innovation Development competition. The project is a hardware and software package of solutions for automating the process of serial 3D printing of parts. The complex consists of Neuron 3D printers, as well as MakerCloud automation system. Both the 3D printer and the automation system are the students' own development.
The Neuron 3D printer has high performance, can print with engineering plastics, and has an intuitive control interface on a screen, but our MakerCloud automation system is of the greatest interest. It allows you to prepare print jobs, launch and monitor the printing process remotely, and detect errors that occur during printing using the printer's camera using artificial intelligence. Most importantly, the cloud allows you to combine 3D printers into print farms and form an individual print line for each printer. In other words, I have 10 3D printers, and I need to print 100 parts. If these were ordinary printers, I would have to run around with a USB flash drive, manually run tasks, monitor errors on my own, and control the process. Here everything happens automatically: I pick up the phone, select the file to print, click "send jobs to the print farm", and the system creates a print line for each printer, distributes tasks, and when the part is ready, it sends a notification. All I need to do is get a series of ready—made parts from printers," said Daniil Kovalenko.
According to him, with small-scale and medium-scale production of plastic parts (from 100 to 1000 pieces), traditional production methods (injection molding) are impractical and economically unprofitable. In this case, 3D printers are used. However, when using classic 3D printers, there are many problems: they require constant monitoring by the operator, tracking errors and failures that often occur manually, and printing starts and settings are also done manually. This development allows you to reduce costs and save time and money. The main target audience is enterprises and entrepreneurs specializing in small— and medium-scale production of plastic parts (automotive, electronic and medical industries).
"As for analogues, there are printers that can offer similar functionality as MakerCloud, but they are made on the basis of the foreign automation system 3DPrinterOS and cost several times more than our Neuron. In comparison with them, we stand out with an error control system using artificial intelligence, our own domestic software, and the low cost of the printer (due to the low cost and localization of production of many components and parts). Another key difference in our approach is the provision of solutions not only for end users, but also for manufacturers of 3D printers," added Daniil Kovalenko.
The development team is now participating in the accelerator of student startups from the startup center of NSTU NETI Reactor, is actively looking for distribution partners, is negotiating with other printer manufacturers to introduce MakerCloud into their printers under licenses, and is promoting its product.