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New 3D Printing Technique Is 100 Times Faster Than Standard 3D Printers (ieee.org)
A new 3D-printing technique could render a three-dimensional object in minutes instead of hours -- at up to 100 times current speeds. The experimental approach uses a vat of resin and some clever tricks with UV and blue LED lights (no lasers needed) to accelerate the printing process. From a report: The technique looks almost like a time-reverse film loop of an object dissolving in a reservoir of acid. But instead of acid, this reservoir contains a specially-designed resin that hardens when exposed to a particular shade of blue light. Crucially, that hardening (the technical term is polymerization) does not take place in the presence of a certain wavelength of UV light. The resin is also particularly absorbent at the wavelengths of both the blue and UV light. So the intensity of UV or blue light going in translates directly to the depth to which light will penetrate into the resin bath. The brighter the light beam, the further it penetrates and the further its effects (whether inhibiting polymerization in the case of UV light, or causing it in the case of blue light) will be felt in the bath along that particular light path.
Timothy Scott, associate professor of chemical engineering at the University of Michigan, says the way to get a 3D-printed object out of this process is to send UV light through a glass-bottomed basin of resin. Then, at the same time, through that same glass window, send patterns of bright and dim blue light. If this printing process used only the blue light, it would immediately harden the first bit of resin it encounters in the basin -- the stuff just inside the glass. And so each successive layer of the object to be printed would need to be scraped or pulled off the window's surface -- a time-consuming and potentially destructive process.
Timothy Scott, associate professor of chemical engineering at the University of Michigan, says the way to get a 3D-printed object out of this process is to send UV light through a glass-bottomed basin of resin. Then, at the same time, through that same glass window, send patterns of bright and dim blue light. If this printing process used only the blue light, it would immediately harden the first bit of resin it encounters in the basin -- the stuff just inside the glass. And so each successive layer of the object to be printed would need to be scraped or pulled off the window's surface -- a time-consuming and potentially destructive process.
https://www.ted.com/talks/joe_...
The catch was, that it was ridiculously overpriced (= for the price of a car) and patented.
The textbook way of killing a good product/idea with greed. Ruining it not just for you, but for everyone.
I hope some Chinese guys make a "fuck imaginary property!" knock-off to force their hand.
Looks like fun. I was thinking of how to do this with Metal, and Carbon Fiber. Another application would be Zero Gravity.
destructive process
a sample of Milla Jovovich's DNA
What I see is a nice, quick way to print 3D objects. Could be useful for future projects. Did they give you a free 3D printer that does this with the TED talk you watched?
Why did the chicken cross the road? Because Elon Musk put an AI chip in its head.
I love the speed of these 3D printers using Resin, but as a Long-time 3D printing fanatic, I never got one as they are messy, expensive (resin is still hideously expensive) and fairly toxic.
Normal PLA printing is slow, but not terribly slow for hobbyist, I can print a 14 x 14 x 14cm at 100my in less than 9 hours, and that's fairly speedy. If you ever want to have mass production of this, you can use it as a prop for injection molding later, and you can make as many copies as you want, dirt cheap.
PLA printers are a big hit with the consumers, just here where I live - our local hardware chain imports thousands of them every year because they're increasing in popularity, they're cheap, they're fairly easy to maintain now, the PLA filament is dirt-cheap but very environmentally friendly as it's just basically Corn Starch. You can have your commercial 3D printer next to your computer like you had your laser printer in the good old days, and have more fun than ever. I can't even imagine life without my little 3D printing workhorse now. Spare parts for the appliance that broke in the house? No problem. Last time I printed with flexible filament to make a couple of rubber fittings for my kitchen ventilator, the light fixture broke (it's over 30 years old), and the cover plastic that covers it, tabs broke. Took me 10-15 minutes to measure and design an improved flexible insert - 50 minutes to print with a traditional Fusion Filament printer, and done.
Same with my 3D characters, I've been wanting to hold those in my hands for 10+ years, and today it's as easy as a little patience. Takes way longer to order them somewhere and finally get them by mail. 3D printing speed issues isn't that much of an issue unless you're talking workshop speeds where you need it to meet the demands of visitors in eg. a store printing figurines or gimmicks on demand. Kind of like the old 1-hour photo for passports in the old days.
That said, I'd love a super speedy 3D printer (who wouldn't?) - but it has to be user friendly, non-messy and with cheap materials.
What this world is coming to - is for you and me to decide.
What laypeople call metal, are usually mixed crystals of several elements/molecules in a very specific configuration. Unless your printer can place individual atoms, you will not get the right kind of properties.
E.g. hardened tool steel or spring steel will never ever be doable with just 3D printing and nothing else.
You'd still at the very least need an oven to heat it in a very specific curve to get the very specific properties. And support a shitton of different mixes of "steel plus other elements".
This technique (UV rapid resin printing) has been around for years and years.
Here's one from a few years ago:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
There's like hundreds of videos on youtube at least on variants of this technique, all around that same 100-ish times faster than additive printing range of minutes versus hours of print time.
It's cool - but this is like one of those 'revolutionary' battery marketing releases where they ignore the drawbacks and don't mention the dozen times this idea has been pushed before.
Ryan Fenton
now I can have a vat full of creimer heads and GWAR penises in minutes instead of hours.
Progress.
Does the resulting object have desirable mechanical properties, or is it fragile and useless? Most people want to do something useful with their creations.
I don't care if the printer is slow if it can make an object out of Nylon with 30% glass fiber reinforcement. (or even better, Inconel!) That material has good mechanical properties.
One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
"no lasers needed"
BOR-ING!
Methinks they weren't trying hard enough to require lasers. Disappointing.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
The key issues that have stopped my from getting a 3d printer are the following. (which most of these issues are with affordable models)
1. Reliability. For one that is priced where I can afford it, they all seem to have issues with reliability, things getting clogged, and failed tries.
2. Resolution. I still kinda wish I could have 3d printed something without all the "scan lines"
3. Color and Material. I would love to be able to have 2 or 3 different colors in a print, also perhaps having a mixture of some material. Such as a solder or some sort of medal for electrical conductivity, or more rubbery filaments for things that need to be gripped, or more stable.
4. Price. They are affordable models, but I just can't see using them except for some toys. and perhaps a replacement part or two, but still not worth the price.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Resin printers have one big problem which is preventing the bottom layer that's being cured from sticking to the bottom of the resin vessel. Traditionally either there's a thin layer of air, some chemical coating or other method from preventing adhesion in the bottom. Additionally, the resin is then shaken between layers to loosen any semi-adhered parts of the print etc.
The Innovation in this article is that not only is light used to cure specific parts of the print, light is also used to PREVENT curing of the resin at the bottom of the vessel and cure it further up in the process. That is the innovation that allows much faster prints even compared to the now ubiquitous resin printers that have problems with the bottom layer sticking.
There's already been a Kickstarter for such a device: https://www.kickstarter.com/pr.... I backed it and its been a few years but they seem like they're close to shipping the majority of devices.
-SaNo
> If its larger metal parts you need, you could get a wax printer then send the mold off to be cast.
I paid about $20-25 all-in for a custom designed metal ring (jewelry). I believe it used 3D print of the wax, then that can be cast in steel, gold, silver - whatever metal you want.
My understanding is that an object twice as big would NOT be twice as expensive. There are costs to just handling the order. Whether $20-25 is affordable depends on the application, I suppose.
but judging by the video, the resolution looks terrible.
...Stereolithography?
Requiem for the American Dream
2. Resolution. I still kinda wish I could have 3d printed something without all the "scan lines"
A couple years ago I saw a 3-D printed part post-treated to deal with that, along with strength issues from the filament passes not fully bounding.
Printer user had post-processed it by exposing it to acetone vapor for a while, then letting the solvent evaporate for a day or so. Used a cheap rice cooker. (OUTDOORS, because, in addition to toxicity issues, generating acetone vapor with a heating appliance indoors is a recipe for a BIG fire if there's a spark.)
If I understand what happened correctly:
- The vapor first penetrated the remaining spaces between the partially fused filaments.
- Then it dissolved into the surface, softening it.
- The filaments then pulled together by capillary attraction (and perhaps also vacuum).
- As this was happening, the remaining acetone dissolved into the filaments, leaving nothing to prevent the gaps from completely disappearing.
The part went from a fragile nest of partially-fused plastic strings to a gorgeous, rock-solid, shaped chunk of the basic plastic, with a mirror finish. Shrank very slightly and sharp edges were slightly rounded, but you can pre-distort to handle that.
Once done you have to let the solvent have plenty of time to diffuse out, or assembling the pieces may cause them to bond.
The material was black and I think it was ABS. I'm not doing 3-D printing so I don't have personal experience, but you should be able to find instructions and details (like timing and what material works) on the web.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
If this printing process used only the blue light, it would immediately harden the first bit of resin it encounters in the basin -- the stuff just inside the glass.
So you shine the blue light at the surface, and slowly lower a platform into the resin. A technique which I'm sure is already in use. (It's analogous to selective laser sintering ... hard to shine a laser through metal powder.)
-- Alastair
https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-...
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Tooth fillings now are hardened by hitting them with blue light for a few seconds. Probably similar materials to this.
I thought these had been around for ages, decades maybe?
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