Carbon 3D Printing

[xrunner]

Pretty cool -

A New 3-D Printing Method Is Rising Out Of The Ooze

March 21, 2015 9:58 AM ET

One of the presentations at the TED Conference in Vancouver this week that had much of the tech elite oohing and ahhing was something called CLIP (no relation to Microsoft's reviled animated helper) or Continuous Liquid Interface Production.

It's a new way of 3-D manufacturing introduced by a company called Carbon3D. CEO and co-founder Joseph DeSimone says what we've been calling 3-D printing is actually 2D printing. It's like ink printing a line over and over again until a little structure emerges, except instead of ink it's, say, plastic. This type of printing is mostly useful for making prototypes, but not really a part that could withstand regular use.

The CLIP technology, however, uses a puddle of liquid resin that has ultraviolet light and oxygen projected through it, essentially sculpting the liquid with the light, sort of like growing a crystal. The best way to understand this process is to imagine the scene from Terminator 2: Judgment Day, when from fluid metal, emerged T-1000, the AI soldier built by AI to exterminate humans. DeSimone points to that scene as inspiration and says they wondered, "How would you get something like that to work?"

What comes out of this printer comes quickly — up to 100 times faster than existing 3-D printers. In addition, the pieces it makes can be of commercial grade using a broad range of materials — and the shapes it makes are far more complex than something that could be made with, say, injection molding. You can make a tube filled with a lattice-like structure. That lace-like lattice can replace a solid structure, making objects lighter. This could be used for fabricating something like airplane seats, cutting the weight of the seat.

The printers should be for sale within the year, though Carbon3D has not yet announced pricing.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2015/03/21/394308967/a-new-3-d-printing-method-is-rising-out-of-the-ooze

Video -

[miguelvp]

Is it something like stereo lithography for carbon?
That's pretty awesome, (didn't have a chance to see the video yet)

When can we print our own graphene, nanotubes and buckyballs?
Forget that, when can we print our own diamonds!

[SeanB]

Basically you are limited to UV curable materials which are inhibited by oxygen, so that the active surface is at the middle of the liquid layer. Solves a problem, but the material choices are going to be very limited, seeing as you need a specific organic polymer. Also likely to have a problem with longevity, as warming it up in air will likely degrade it back to liquid or just make it crumble. Might be workable as a very quick prototyping method or a way to make a lost wax casting very fast.

[Mr.B]

I don't see how this device differs very much from the Formlabs Form 1+.
Except that Formlabs are using laser to cure the resin.

[PA0PBZ]

I don't see how this device differs very much from the Formlabs Form 1+.
Except that Formlabs are using laser to cure the resin.

It's fast. The thing in the video was printed in 7 minutes (1 minute video, 7 x speed).

[Mr.B]

It's fast. The thing in the video was printed in 7 minutes (1 minute video, 7 x speed).

Ok... I will give you that... It is fast.

[miguelvp]

Stereo lithography is fast not just because of the process but you can print the whole plane at the same time.
Some use DLPs some use displays that are reflective when on/off and with optics you can both cure that plane and use a prism so you can monitor what is going on at the same time via a camera.

some others scan with a raster.

nano stereo lithography is just even cooler

Demo:


Advert:


They seem to be still in business.
http://www.nanoscribe.de/en/

But I've heard the resins used for both the macro and nano systems can be very toxic so unless you want cancer make sure you use the right materials and protective gear.

There was a clever kickstarter but not sure how that end up. he used water drips to control the height and a speaker to control the laser, the water drips were counted because they would make contact in a sensor as they were dripping. That was supposed to be an inexpensive macro level stereo lithography