WHY ORDER YOUR 3D PRINTED PARTS THROUGH AMBOTS?

  • MASSIVE BUILD VOLUMES

    The division of large print jobs is done automatically, so starting a cooperative print job is as simple as starting a single printer job

  • FASTER PRINT TIMES

    By dividing up the work between multiple printers, large prints finish faster.

  • INCREASED OUTPUT

    The printers are not limited to working together, a group of printers can also work on multiple print jobs simultaneously for times when you do not need large scale printing.

  • RELIABILITY & SAFETY


    The AMBOTS C1 has multiple sensors to detect filament runout, layer shifts, motor failures and power outages to keep your print running.

AMBOTS developed the AMB C1 to revolutionize cooperative printing. The AMB C1 is a modular printer that can operate independently, but its standout feature is its ability to collaborate with other units. Through the use of the "AMBOTS U1" software's cooperative functionality, larger print jobs can be divided into smaller segments to distribute the workload across all the printers. After the segments are distributed, each printer will print its assigned section before interweaving it with the others to create the final model. This process enables the printing of multiple individual objects or large objects efficiently. The technology's advantages include increased print volume, decreased print time, and improved production efficiency.

MOBILE 3D PRINTING

One primitive manufacturing task is depositing and joining materials at specified locations. 3D printing is an automation of this task, which is one of the most versatile digital manufacturing technologies.
Therefore, we developed the first member of our mobile robot crew - a wirelessly controlled mobile robot that can deposit and join materials
for 3D printing.

DIGITAL ASSEMBLY

Assembly is another primitive task for manufacturing any sophisticated product. Therefore, we developed a pick-and-place mobile robot for digital assembly to be the second member of our mobile robot crew. More crew members are being developed, such as tape laying robot, inkjet robot, adhesive printing robot, screw driving robot, etc.

CHUNK-BASED 3D PRINTING

To ensure the speed of the 3D printing process is not limited by the size of the object, we developed a new chunk-based 3D printing method, which divides an object into smaller chunks to be printed individually. The chunk-based printing method keeps the 3D printing process localized and solves many issues that arise when the size of the object increases (e.g., warping issue, accuracy control, wait times). The chunk-based printing method has been validated in a tensile strength study, which showed the chunk-bond to be stronger than a regularly 3D printed part.

SWARM 3D PRINTING

To enable a swarm of mobile robots working together without causing conflicts, meticulous planning is needed, just like how a team of humans would work together to accomplish a project. In autonomous manufacturing, software is needed to analyze the digital model, split it into smaller tasks, assign the tasks to different robots, and schedule the robots to finish the tasks in sequence and in parallel. We have developed the necessary software for both swarm 3D printing and for placing pre-made parts into print jobs using gripper robots. A swarm of 16 mobile 3D printers working together to print a 3D map of Arkansas is shown here.