Additive Manufacturing: Comparative Study of an IoT Integrated Approach and a Conventional Solution

The domain of additive manufacturing is an ever-growing sphere of research that will soon make its mark in countless industrial applications. The prowess of additive manufacturing increases significantly when it is integrated along with the Internet of Things. Upon connecting a Prusa MK3S 3D printer to a Raspberry Pi 3B and operating it via Octoprint, the merits of IoT integration are assessed. Comparing the samples from an IoT integrated printer and a standard printer, a contrast is made between the print qualities of the test samples from the two methods of printing. Combining the additive manufacturing set up along with IoT, multiple additional functionalities are obtained, including remote monitoring, remote operation and lower computing requirements. The results of the experiments lead us to the conclusion that the setup can be operated with lesser computing power and also incorporate remote operation and monitoring while maintaining acceptable print quality. The loss in print quality from the IoT approach is negligible when juxtaposed with the prints from a standard desktop operated printer.