HOLK Manufacturing
In development
Intelligent 3D printer farms
Software for treating several printers as a coordinated queue rather than as isolated machines.
Project overview
Software for treating several printers as a coordinated queue rather than as isolated machines.
What problem are we solving?
One printer is a workshop tool. Several printers are a scheduling problem: which job, which machine, which material, and what happens when a machine is busy or offline.
How does the technology work?
The manufacturing path used in the lab software is: take a customer order, slice the model, place it in a queue, send it to a linked printer, check the result, then arrange delivery. Slicing and a queue exist in the software being built. Automatic assignment across a farm of many machines, and a formal quality sign-off, are not finished.
System architecture
- An order that names the part and the material choices.
- A slicer that prepares machine instructions.
- A queue.
- A printer reached through Connect.
- A check and a delivery step, which are still part of the intended flow.
Development phase
In development. The single-printer path is further along than a multi-printer farm. The row of machines in the illustration is not the HOLK TECH workshop.
Current challenges
- A queue has to stay honest when a printer cannot be reached.
- Material, time and price must come from the job, not from a guessed brochure figure.
- Quality control is still a person looking at a part, not an automated certificate.
Next milestones
- Keep one linked printer reliable before describing a farm as operational.
- Add further machines only when each one is actually enrolled.