Does sharing part jobs across printers make a replicating printer shop double faster than one copy per printer?
research/selfrep-partpool
Does sharing part jobs across printers beat one copy per printer (stylised, assumed inputs): a pool serving the oldest copy first doubles in 43.2 h against 51.1 h with no import limit, about half the gap to the fluid 34.7 h; with imports binding all policies agree.
What it found
Tests the explanation given in selfrep-growth for the gap between its fluid (34.7 h) and discrete-event (about 53 h) doubling times. A part-level simulation of the Prusa Mendel's 44 printed parts plus assembly compares one copy per printer with a shared pool of part jobs. With no import limit the pool that always serves the oldest copy doubles in 43.2 h against 51.1 h (15% faster), closing about half of the gap; a pool that advances all copies together equals one-copy-per-printer, and under an import budget all three agree. Stylised: every input is assumed, parts are uniform, no plate packing or failed prints.
A figure from its own output
Paper, code and results
More in Self-replicating manufacturing
- How many parts should a replicating printer print per plate to double its shop fastest?How many parts per print plate double a replicating printer shop fastest (stylised, assumed inputs): with no changeover one part per plate wins (43.2 h doubling), with 0.25 h per plate four parts (46.4 h), with 0.5 to 1 h eleven parts; pooled fleets stay 7.6 to 15.5% ahead of one copy per printer.
- How much of a RepRap printer can a growing seed shop make itself?Part, mass and cost closure of the RepRap Prusa Mendel (iteration 2) for three seed shops: printer alone makes 18 of 51 part lines (35%), plus router and laser 43%, assumed-mass closure 22%; casting helps only with brass bushings. Mass and cost inputs assumed. Stylised.
- Which machine should a seed shop add next, and does a greedy rule find it?Which machine a printer-only seed shop should add next under a budget: greedy closure-per-price vs exhaustive search; same choice on the real 3-machine instance, optimal in 72–94% of 500 synthetic instances. Machine prices assumed. Stylised.
- How fast does a replicating printer shop grow when its vitamins must be bought?Discrete-event and fluid growth of a replicating printer shop with imported vitamins: doubling time falls roughly as 1/budget until machine time binds (about 53 h in the simulation), failed builds cost about 1/(1-f), and closure helps most when imports bind. All inputs assumed; Lackner and Wendt comparison not done. Stylised.
- When should a replicating shop stop copying itself and start making goods?Optimal split of a replicating printer shop's time between copies and goods: copy flat out, then switch one e-folding time (about 50 h) before the horizon; constant splits get 9–27% of that value, smooth ramps no better. Cash-limited cases switch about 50 h from the end. All inputs assumed. Stylised.
- How much imported material can recycling save a self-replicating printer shop?Mass and energy balance of plastic and aluminium recycling for one RepRap copy (stylised, assumed process parameters): vitamins stay about 75% of imported mass, recycling the shop's own scrap cuts imports a median 3%, and only retired-machine plastic changes the plastic import much.
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Produced with AI assistance (Claude). Results are from the code in this repository and are simulated or stylised unless the abstract says otherwise; nothing here implies affiliation with or endorsement by any lab, researcher or company cited. MIT licensed.