Low-cost automation in additive manufacturing for small and medium scale enterprises

Abstract

Additive manufacturing by small and medium scale enterprises plays a key role in the economic growth, employment, income stability and poverty reduction in developing countries like Ghana. These enterprises however, are plagued with inadequate purchasing power, high running costs and the fact that most automation today in additive manufacturing are at the industrial scale. In this research, a representative additive manufacturing system termed as the 3D printing process at Klaks Technologies Ltd. has been automated at a low cost. Making use of print queueing, power outage detection, filament run-out and robotic arm subsystems, the developed system determines status of four 3D printers and queued prints, detects printing failures and geometry of printed objects as well as deployment of a robot with vision system to remove the printed objects from the printing platform with minimal collision rates. Cost of the developed system stood at GHS 16 112.59 (USD 3 061.39) which compares favourably with the lowest cost of existing automated system (i.e. Opencreators BS210) which is USD 3 899.00. Financial evaluation conducted gave an internal rate of return of 49.33% and a net present value of USD 5 787.18 at a discount rate of 20%. Also, the discounted payback period stood at 3.4 years. To increase productivity and reduce costs without increment in manual labour, low-cost automation based on relevant research outcome is recommended for additive manufacturing production systems of small and medium-scale enterprises in Ghana.