WIRELESS CONTROL AND MONITORING OF FUSED DEPOSITION MODELER

Abstract

Rapid prototyping is the present trend in the the field of manufacturing that works on the principle of additive manufacturing. The 3D printing is a form of additive manufacturing technology where a three dimensional object is created by laying down successive layers of material one above the other. Fused Deposition Modeling(FDM) is one of the method of 3D printing where a hot thermoplastic is extruded from a temperature-controlled print head to produce fairly robust objects at a high degree of accuracy. The general setup for the 3D printer requires a computer to be connected continuously to the printer during the printing. My thesis focusses in eliminating this sacrifice of a computer and instead controlling and monitoring the printer remotely using a PC or an android device. The printer uses wireless mode of communication such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.