We’re not trying to make any money off of you or your customers! My team and I at Imperial College London are developing a plug-and-play 3D printing solution that could help makerspaces like yours maximize their efficiency and make 3D printing more accessible!
We’ve noticed that staff at makerspaces are often tied up with maintenance and other menial tasks associated with 3D printers, which can be frustrating and a waste of valuable time. We’re working on an automated solution that can queue and remove print jobs and move them to temporary storage to be collected in the customer’s own time. Users can send print jobs through a web app and monitor the status of their print live.
We’re seeking feedback from makerspaces like yours to help us refine our solution. Would you be interested in learning more about our project and providing your thoughts on how it could be adapted for your space? We’re also interested in finding partners to trial a prototype!
If you’re interested, we’d be happy to set up a short online meeting to discuss this further.
Have you reached out to Makerversity at Somerset House @Leo ? They might possibly be interested. I could put you in touch with the team if you like or show you the set-up in person.
Number #1 problem I can see with this project is that there has to be someone monitoring the 3D printer in-person at all times while it’s printing. For safety and insurance reasons. I doubt anyone at the Makerspace would want to be there for hours while other people’s prints roll off. Maybe you could design it as a bit of a gig economy type thing? As in, “Invest in this IoT 3D printer and we’ll connect you with local people who want to print stuff on it”. Then the monitor gets paid.
