3D printingEliminating the need for expensive industrial molds, this product has proven to be a true revolution for home users. Are your glasses broken? Just print a new temple. Need a prosthesis? Just download the blueprint and make one. However, despite its versatility, technology It does not have a large impact on the scale of the industry. Manufacturers have not adopted this for industrial production, except in areas such as printing construction modules and full-size homes.anyone you know 3D printer You can see why. They tend to be very slow. Many successive layers of material must be built up to complete the final product. This is known as additive printing and is time consuming. However, there are some options to speed up the process. The most radical approach is to do away with the regular extruder and replace it with a light beam. Developed by researchers at the University of Michigan (USA), this new 3D printing system is 100 times faster than other technologies used so far.
Their technique projects two beams of light into a resin tank, the latter of which instantly solidifies through the polymerization process. The resin flows under the print and is gradually hardened by the light source. Instead of having layers, the object is printed as a single piece, making it much more robust and durable than its additive manufacturing counterpart. Therefore, the research team announced this as one of the world’s first full-fledged 3D printers.
Issues in printing with light
One of the main problems posed by print with light The resin at the bottom of the tank tends to harden, which can cause objects to stick to the surface. This problem was previously solved by adding oxygen to the bottom layer, the element that keeps the resin fluid. Since the resin layer exposed to oxygen is very thin, only high-flowing resins that fill the voids quickly enough could be used.but 3D printed object Items manufactured with this type of resin are very fragile.
A new solution utilizes a second beam to prevent the solidification process. That is, two different wavelengths are used. One plays a photoactivating role and the other plays a photoinhibiting role.with this New technologythe thickness of the liquid layer in contact with the window can be several millimeters, allowing the resin to flow faster.
Nevertheless, this innovative technology The one developed by the University of Michigan is not yet commercially available. Already discovered is a digital photosynthesis system developed by Carbon 3Done of the first manufacturers in this field Types of 3D printing. Their approach uses oxygen to keep the resin flowing. Then, when the object is printed, a heat curing or hardening process is applied to achieve the desired stiffness.
sauce: University of Michigan
