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Caraquet Lab's New Robot Cell Prints, Scans and Mills Moulds

CCNB's INNOV centre in Caraquet now runs a Rapid Fusion ZEUS hybrid system that 3D-prints large parts, scans them and machines them in one cell. A demonstration took a CAD model most of the way to a mould in about 12 hours.

Closing card: the INNOV and Rapid Fusion logos above a New Brunswick outline pinned at Caraquet, the words Print. Scan. Mill. and an amber readout: CAD to mould in about 12 hours

The applied research centre of the Collège communautaire du Nouveau-Brunswick (CCNB) in Caraquet has a robot cell that can 3D-print a large part, scan it and machine it without moving it to another machine. British manufacturer Rapid Fusion published a case study on Oct. 15 on the customised ZEUS hybrid manufacturing system it installed at the INNOV Advanced Materials Centre, with a video interview of the centre's team.

The headline claim is speed. During installation and training, the team took a CAD model, printed the part and aligned it for milling in about 12 hours, work that INNOV staff said would normally take weeks or months.

Three processes in one cell

ZEUS combines three steps that normally need separate equipment, according to Rapid Fusion:

  • Large-format additive manufacturing: a pellet extruder on an industrial robot builds near-net-shape polymer parts directly from CAD designs.
  • 3D scanning: the printed part, or an existing component, is scanned so the software knows its real shape and position.
  • CNC milling: the same robot switches to a milling tool and machines the part to its final geometry and surface finish.

The scanning step was customised for INNOV. Lining up a printed part for machining usually takes a lot of manual work. Rapid Fusion said during the demonstration that its scan-based alignment could cut that job from about a day to around 20 minutes. INNOV also plans to scan existing components, modify their designs and use the models to make new moulds or prototypes.

"It was really, really customised for our needs and how we want to work with it," a member of the INNOV team says in the case study.

A mould in a day, almost

The 12-hour figure comes from the installation demonstration, and the case study is careful about it. The team went from a CAD model to a printed part aligned and ready for CNC milling within a single working day. The final milling pass had not been completed when Rapid Fusion recorded the interview, so the demonstration shows the potential to finish a mould in about that time rather than a measured end-to-end result.

"Mould manufacturing is something that takes weeks and months, while you see you can do it in a day," the INNOV team member said. "So for me, this is the big change."

Rapid Fusion is based in Exeter, England, and is a sister business of 3D printing hardware firm Evo 3D. ZEUS won the Hardware – Polymer Systems title at the 2025 TCT Awards in Birmingham.

A $500,000 platform

INNOV unveiled the platform on Sept. 1. It is built around a six-axis KUKA KR120 R3900 industrial robot and represents an investment of about $500,000, made possible by the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA), ResearchNB and CCNB. Rapid Fusion handled integration, installation and commissioning, according to CCNB's announcement.

The unveiling coincided with a visit from New Brunswick Senator René Cormier. INNOV says it was attended by CCNB president and CEO Pierre Zundel, INNOV director Josée Landry, lead researcher for business development Sébastien Vaudreuil and project manager Maxime Saulnier, who manages the facility's operations.

One of the first projects printed prototype parts from a composite that is 60 per cent wood flour, a test of using local resources as feedstock. In a LinkedIn post, Vaudreuil showed a 1.9-metre boat hull printed on the cell and said a 20-metre linear rail is planned for the system to allow larger prints. He pointed to dual-use work such as naval drones and uncrewed surface vessels, where developers need to iterate quickly without tooling.

Who can use it

The platform is meant for companies that want to test an idea before buying their own equipment. INNOV says its teams can help a company build a prototype, test new materials, experiment with manufacturing parameters, validate a robotic manufacturing process, develop or improve a component, or run a proof of concept before a larger industrial investment.

INNOV has supported businesses across Atlantic Canada through applied research since 2005 and completes more than 60 industrial contracts a year, CompositesWorld reported. The Caraquet centre's existing work covers composites, vacuum infusion, resin transfer moulding and mechanical testing.

What the announcements do not include yet are customers. Neither INNOV nor Rapid Fusion has named a company that has used the cell for paid work, and the case study describes the mould timeline as a demonstration during training.

Sources

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Watch: From Weeks to Hours: Hybrid 3D Printing in Action | Rapid Fusion x INNOV

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