Roboze has inked a partnership deal with Italian automation company Comau.
Roboze is a long-time manufacturer of large-format high-temperature 3D printers for industry. Their biggest machine is the massive Argo 1000, which has a 1m cubed build volume. They have also focused strongly on lightweight, high-strength materials, which in some applications can substitute for metal parts.
You may not have heard of Comau, based in Turin. The 52-year-old company is quite large, with over 4000 employees and 20 plants worldwide. They provide products and services to a range of industries, but this partnership is all about their automation capabilities.
Comau has a significant capability in robotics and automation, including cobots, anthropomorphic robots, automated guided vehicles, and factory automation systems.
The latter is where the companies will focus their resources.
The press release indicates they hope to “open new customer and market segments” by combining Roboze’s 3D print technology with Comau’s automation solutions. The release talks about ensuring on-demand 3D printing in industry, where most 3D print solutions are deficient.
That’s because 3D printers have generally not been designed by default to integrate into modern factory systems, unlike most other industrial equipment. In fact, most 3D printers don’t even automate the post-processing steps required.
This has led to most installations using manual labour to handle the post-processing and factory integration steps, which creates a barrier to the use of the technology. Manufacturers want solutions that don’t slow down their operations.
This is where I believe Roboze and Comau will focus their efforts. It is possible to automate some of the manual operational activities associated with running a large Roboze system, and that would greatly help integrate the technology into a factory environment.
They don’t say exactly what approaches will be attempted, but one could easily imagine a robotic system removing completed build plates from Roboze 3D printers, with automated vehicles taking the prints to post-processing stations nearby. That alone would transform much manual work into a predictable automated system.
Roboze mentions one of their goals is to enable “affordable automation”, and that suggests their automation solution would be less than the cost of human labour.
An integrated, automated, and affordable 3D print solution could be a compelling option for manufacturers to consider. This is a very good move for Roboze.
Via Roboze
