Motor-control software is speeding up FDM 3D printers by using predictive algorithms to drive the print head at 80 miles an hour, then dynamically slowing down before critical points to avoid vibration and defects. This shifts speed optimization from hardware to firmware.
You're gonna see a lot of work done on the metal side. I think you're seeing a lot of innovative work being done on the software side in motor controls to actually help improve build speed. Specifically, as I had, for example, in an FDM-type machine, fused deposition modeling. For people that don't understand, this is sort of like, imagine the spaghetti of plastic, if you will, being exerted out and it's on an XYZ sort of plotter. The ability for software now to be able to allow that to move faster and predict where the end part's going to sort of have to stop and slow it down. And so it allows it to go 80 miles an hour and then slow it down right before the end and not have kind of vibrations. So software and controls are playing a bigger role and will continue to play a bigger role in design to improve the speed at which things can be basically taken from design through into production.
