We needed fixtures that could simulate our hardware, so I built them.

With so many actuators, electronics, and sensors in Markforged furnaces, we needed a set of fixtures that could do everything - without actually heating up or using inert gas. Such fixtures would assist electrical and software engineers to test various features that are present in our furnaces, without the danger or time involved in heating and sintering.

I was the point person for the mechanical design of a set of fixtures that could act as either a Sinter-1 or Sinter-2 model furnace. I designed the fixtures in Solidworks, arranging the hardware components (gas flowmeters, pressure sensors, circuit boards, and other electronics) to fit in an off-the-shelf enclosure. I did so such that one of these fixtures could be changed to either flavor of Sinter by just swapping in/out a few components. Once satisfied with the layout, I designed and 3d printed mounting hardware and electrical safety components. I precisely (and manually) drilled and cut modifications in the enclosure for different usage features.

After building the first version of the Furnace-in-a-Box (dubbed Sinter-In-A-Box), I directed others in the assembly of a second and wrote work instructions that would assist future building efforts.

These fixtures are now used frequently by our engineering and production teams to solve intricate, technical problems quickly, without the time involved in heating or cooling a real-life furnace. This in-turn saves valuable time as our internal machine fleet is small and limited in available bandwidth. The uptime in our internal fleet has since increased and software or firmware changes can be easily tested before going into machines, decreasing total downtime for internal and field units. Not only have these fixtures been important in furnace development, but they have proven very useful for running tests on other projects due to their compact size and easy-to-use controls.