Infinity Flow makes 3D printing easier than ever
3D printing has revolutionized manufacturing, but it still has some built-in heartache — if your print runs out of filament in the middle of the night, hours of work are ruined. Now, Purdue University alumni have created a solution: Infinity Flow, a new device that automatically loads and feeds multiple rolls of filament into any 3D printer, making the process faster, easier, and totally seamless.
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Infinite printing
“It began as a senior design project here at Purdue,” said Nathan Caylor (BSME ’24), who co-founded the Infinity Flow company. “We do a lot of 3D printing and prototyping as engineers, but there is actually a big barrier of entry for the 3D printing process to be helpful and productive.”
3D printing involves a spool of plastic filament, a strand of which is heated to melt the plastic, and extruded layer-by-layer onto a platform to create a three-dimensional object. Depending on the size of the object, this could take hours, and sometimes days. If the filament runs out halfway through a print process, that object is ruined and the process must be restarted from the beginning.
“We’ve all had instances where we set a print going, only to find Monday morning that it had failed in the last hour, squandering a weekend’s worth of work,” said Caylor. “We wanted to create something to solve that problem.” With his fellow mechanical engineering students Daniel Verde and Samuel Pletcher, they set out to design a 3D printer that was as reliable and easy-to-use as a traditional inkjet printer.
The first Infinity Flow prototype was quite ambitious indeed. It featured three spools of filament (most machines only have one), and a conveyor belt system that delivered the completed object onto a tray, instantly starting the next print without interruptions. The team won 1st place at the Malott Innovation Awards, Purdue’s competition for the most innovative senior design projects in mechanical engineering.
However, the aspect that really caught everyone’s eye was the automatic filament switching. The team demonstrated this rather dramatically, cutting a filament strand mid-print with a pair of scissors. The Infinity Flow machine sensed the breakage, discharged the broken filament, and automatically loaded a second spool, continuing the print process automatically with no human intervention.
“That’s when we decided to focus on creating a legitimate product that enables automatic filament switching,” said Caylor. “Infinity Flow is like having a printer that never runs out of ink.”
Demonstrating Infinity Flow’s beta prototype, the S1, Caylor describes why this product was sorely needed. “Loading a normal 3D printer with filament is usually about a 10-minute process,” he said. “With the S1, it’s about 10 seconds.”
Dropping a spool of filament onto one of the S1’s trays, he inserts the loose end of the plastic strand into an opening of the machine, and presses a button. “That’s it,” he says, as the filament moves up the tube towards the machine’s print head. “The S1 does the rest.”
Then comes the kicker. “Even while your printer is mid-print, you’re able to pre-load a second roll of filament,” he says, loading a second spool onto the S1’s other tray. “When the first spool runs out, it automatically switches to the other spool. This enables you to maximize every bit of filament on your roll, and ensures smooth and consistent prints with no interruptions.”
“And,” he adds, “you get spared from the heart attack of filament runout!”
Start it up
Designing a product is one thing. Starting a business from scratch is quite another.
“I’ve always wanted to be an entrepreneur,” said Caylor, who graduated with a minor in Business Management. “As juniors, Sam and Dan and I started an engineering consulting company called Step One, which was pretty successful. We learned how business works, with cashflows and expenses and management. And then, when this Infinity Flow project came along, we became obsessed with it.”
They decided to focus 100% on Infinity Flow, even turning down lucrative job offers to do so. “We are all in on this,” said Caylor. “It definitely lights a fire under our butt to make sure that our product is the best it can be.”
One important aspect Caylor highlights about the S1 is its universality. “There are companies that make something vaguely similar, but it’s proprietary to their one specific brand of printer,” he said. “The S1 works with any 3D printer. There are literally no excuses not to get one!”
“We couldn’t have done this without Purdue,” said Caylor. “We had the privilege of testing the S1 at Purdue ME's Additive Manufacturing Lab, which has dozens of machines and runs through tons of filament every day. If it can work here, it can work anywhere!”
Ultimately, the best testimonial comes from the team themselves. “Using the S1 ourselves has been a game changer,” said Caylor. “It will save you so much time, maximize your filament use, and keep you from ever running out. I can’t imagine 3D printing without it.”
Source: Infinity Flow, https://infinityflow3D.com
Writer: Jared Pike, jaredpike@purdue.edu, 765-496-0374