Patent ID: 7373214

Claim:
A system that prints three dimensional products, the system including: at least one printhead for printing material to create a three-dimensional printed product a supply of objects selected from the group comprising electrical and mechanical devices; and at least one object incorporation device comprising a robot for insertion of the objects into products being printed; wherein the objects are incorporated into a partially completed product whilst the at least one printhead prints the product, and wherein: the system executes a process, the system including a plurality of subsystems, each of which performs a stage of the process, each of the subsystems being configured to perform one of a first subset N 1 of the stage, where N is greater than 1 and to change the stage of the subset being performed on receipt of a change instruction; wherein, in the event that one of the subsystems fails, at least one of the remaining subsystems synchronously changes to performing the respective stage of the failed subsystem without requiring transfer of data relating the respective stage to the said at least one remaining subsystems, and when a subsystem changes to performing a different stage, the system reconfigures the subsystem to be capable of performing a second subset N 2 of the stage where N 1 and N 2 have the same number of stages.