Case Study: Materialise achieves faster, higher-quality 3D printing with National Instruments CompactRIO

The Materialise Control Platform Using CompactRIO to Revolutionize 3D Printing

Materialise, a worldwide leader in 3D printing software and services, faced industry-wide challenges hindering the broad adoption of additive manufacturing. These hurdles included a lack of production repeatability, extensive machine calibration downtimes, and process glitches that compromised part quality and created scrap. To build a smarter 3D printer that could overcome these issues, Materialise turned to vendor National Instruments for a solution.

The solution was the Materialise Control Platform (MCP), powered by National Instruments' CompactRIO hardware, LabVIEW, and LabVIEW FPGA. This system integrated all control elements in real time, achieving a 100 kHz closed-loop control rate, which is 100 times faster than traditional machines. The results included automated calibration in under a minute, predictive maintenance, a 20% reduction in material waste, and the production of higher quality, more repeatable parts at a lower cost, making industrial 3D printing more viable.

Materialise

Stijn Schacht

Materialise