Form 2: remote management

Feature Requests & Ideas
1

I saw a previous post talking about this, but since it was a little old I would like to start a new one.

What I want to suggest is a way to start remotely the prints with the form 2, and I think that for some enterprises this feature could be a very important feature and delight factor for customers, expecially in the medical field.

Let me bring you an example: a patient arrives to the hospital and need to be surgically operated in a relatively fast time (let’s say after 2 days), and the doctor need a surgical guide made by his own and sends you the file at 6 pm. Now you have to print it, cure it and then ship it. In this example without using the night to print the model it is higly probable that the surgeon will have to work without the guide.

I see that there are some technical issues that can lead to a damage of the components of the machine, but i think that if you have a good operator preparing the machine these issues could be overcome.

What I am suggesting is not to remove the button press for starting a print, but instead on the touchscreen could appear a checklist of tasks to do to have the machine ready, checking each step with a press of the button. Once you have completed the final task, the printer goes in a “ready to print” state, and when it receives the print file starts to print.

I think that this will help both to reduce damages to the hardware, because you have the checklist before every print, and also will grant a very interesting feature for enterprises.

Just to know: Stratasys already does this on the F123 series and some of their polyjet machines, that can be completely managed at distance.

2 Likes
2

Thanks for the suggestion! This is something we’re actively thinking about and considering the correct implementations for.

A sort of pre-launch checklist that to go through if you expect you’re going to want to run a remote print is a great idea. Verifying platform presence and correct tank and cartridge materials can be important as I tend to forget those from time to time myself.

One of the more challenging problems is opening the printer up beyond the local area network. This requires additional security infrastructure that might be more challenging than the workflow for remote prints themselves. This is something we’re continuing to look into going forwards.