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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.
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.
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.