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Stanford engineers developed a 3D printing technology that is 5 to 10 times faster than the quickest high-resolution printers now available and can use various resins in a single product.
3D printing advancements have made it easier for designers and engineers to modify ideas, generate actual prototypes at various scales, and build buildings that would otherwise be unachievable. more conventional manufacturing However, the technique has limitations: the procedure is lengthy and requires particular materials, which are usually utilized one at a time.
Stanford researchers have developed a 3D printing method that uses multiple resins in a single object to promise faster prints. Their concept, which was just published in Science Advances, is 5 to 10 times faster than the quickest high-resolution printing technology now available, and may allow researchers to utilize thicker plastics with greater mechanical and electrical qualities.
“This innovative approach will help realize the full potential of 3D printing,” said Joseph DeSimone, corresponding author of the research and Sanjiv Professor of Translational Medicine Sam Gambhir and Stanford Professor of Radiological and Chemical Engineering. “This will allow us to print significantly faster, which will assist usher in a new era of digital manufacturing, as well as allowing complicated, multi-material things to be made in one step. ”
Continuous Fluid Interface Manufacturing, or CLIP, is a revolutionary new 3D printing design developed by DeSimone and colleagues in 2015. The CLIP print appears to be from a science-fiction film, with a lift gently pulling the seemingly fully-formed thing out of a thin puddle of plastic.
Plastic flow regulation
A sequence of UV pictures projected across the pool hardens the top layer of plastic into the desired shape, while a layer of oxygen prevents hardening at the bottom of the pool and creates a “dead zone” where the resin stays.
CLIP’s speed is dependent on deadband. The liquid resin is designed to fill in behind the solid item as it grows larger, providing for smooth, continuous printing. However, this may not always occur, especially if the portion expands too quickly or the plastic is excessively viscous.
The researchers used this new method, known as CLIP injection, or iCLIP, to add additional resin at key points by mounting syringe pumps above the lifting platform. “Plastic flow in CLIP is a fairly passive process – you just pull the thing up and hope that the suction can pick up the material where it is needed,” said Gabriel Lipkowitz, a senior author on the work and a PhD student in mechanical engineering at Stanford.