AON3D has somehow sped up their print speeds by 54%.
The Montreal-based company produces industrial FFF 3D printers that are able to print with high temperature materials.
It seems they have developed a unique post processing script that is applied to generated GCODE. This provides optimization that uses a “physics approach.”
VP of Software Research Adrian Muresan explains:
“Until now, polymer physics have been left out of the slicing process, relying solely on trial-and-error tuning — a time-consuming process with variable outcomes. AON3D’s Multiphysics Process Optimization changes this, achieving deterministic outcomes and tying predictions to results.”
The physics approach uses thermal and material properties of the material to predict how it will act. Heat transfer through the print as it proceeds is analyzed, and the result is a way to change material deposition rates on the fly. AON3D says this allows for the “fastest possible print speeds”.
In other words, they put the pedal to the floor just before the material “breaks”, which causes deformation. The system speeds up and slows down as required during the print to handle any geometry.
They say they reduced a 24 hour print to only 13 hours, which is significant. Remember, this is all happening in software — there are no hardware changes required for this speed up. This software would theoretically work on any installed AON3D Hylo system.
AON3D contrasts their approach to speeding up print jobs with one that’s commonly used in the industry: use a bigger nozzle. That does indeed speed up the print, but introduces coarse layer lines and does nothing for the print quality. Meanwhile, AON3D’s post processing script has the normal nozzle hardware dancing precisely to achieve the fastest speeds.
I’m intrigued with this approach, and wondering why no other 3D printer manufacturer has undertaken a similar project. It seems to me that the strategy here should work for any FFF device, desktop, professional or industrial.
I’m now wondering if AON3D might create a sideline business licensing this approach to others.
Via AON3D
