Heron AM is comprised of several key elements that can guarantee certain quality, accuracy, and performance standards. The platform was developed with an application-first approach: as Caracol is the system’s first end-user, they developed know-how on the type of challenges their clients might face when manufacturing parts and when working with LFAM technologies. After years of research and development, over 30 thousand hours of printing, and hundreds of projects with clients across sectors, the company decided to commercialize its system.
The platform includes extrusion heads developed and patented by Caracol, a robotic arm for movement and support, a direct and continuous feeding system for composites and polymers, a dedicated software platform for complex tool paths, and other features to fully integrate the system. It was developed as a modular system, so that it can be configured and customized for different applications and manufacturing requirements based on different end-users’ needs.
The system can produce components with a wide range of thermoplastics and composites (both from virgin and recycled origins) in the form of pellets and shreds. This makes the system ideal for the production of several medium to large-scale parts, such as: structural elements, tooling such as jigs for positioning, drilling, and cutting, molds, assembly rigs, beams, prototypes, metal replacement, temporary or permanent substitution of parts, and an array of applications and components we continue to discover every day.
In November, Caracol announced two new major innovations: the High Flow Extruder and the Automatic Printing Bed.
Caracol’s new High Flow Extruder was built to be the solution needed to create larger and more complex parts, thanks to the high throughput. The higher temperature, which can get up to 450°C, was introduced to process an increasingly extended range of technical polymers and composites with higher-melting points – while still maintaining the best properties and print quality thanks to the greater thermal control. In addition to this, the extruder incorporates a set of features that enable greater control, performance, and flexibility – including sensors for temperature, material feeding, and monitoring of production parameters. The High Flow Extruder was developed to print larger parts than previously possible – such as aerospace tools, entire boat hulls, and single-part architectural installations, to name just a few. While ensuring greater stability and quality on larger parts, thanks to the extruder’s optimization, it also enables notably high-speed printing – with a throughput ranging between 20-30 kg/h. All this makes Caracol’s platform competitive with bigger gantry systems while, at the same time, maintaining the flexibility and the 6+ axes that only the robotic support can provide.
Caracol’s also launched the Automatic Printing Bed, designed (and patented) with a focus on two main features – to improve the mechanical grip for the first layer, as well as to help automate the production process. The first, the improved mechanical grip for the first layer, is due to a structure of aluminum slats that ensure the first printed layers perfectly adhere to the surface of the bed – guaranteeing a greater stability of the part during the print. The rotating structure of the bed then introduces the ability to print endlessly by enabling the automatic release of the part at the end of the job – potentially extending the X-axis infinitely, and allowing the system to continue printing parts one after the other. In conjunction with the high temperatures of the High Flow Extruder, this new print bed is also heated – once again, ensuring that the system can easily work with the most advanced materials with higher melting points and that require higher thermal control.
Within Caracol's HQ, near Milan, Italy, the company has developed one of the largest LFAM production hub in the world. Hosting eight Heron AM platforms in their varied configurations – including insulated cells for high-performing polymers and a system with a 7th axis structure to extend size up to 15-meter parts. Within the space Caracol has also set up a dedicated post-production area, with a robotic CNC center, and a Quality department with state-of-the-art equipment to inspect and control both the process and all manufactured parts, in accordance with the AS/EN 9100 standard.
Overall Caracol keeps working with the aim to lead the manufacturing world toward a new production paradigm that helps companies be more efficient, performing, and sustainable.