Michał Baran Mixes Resin with Dish Soap to Create Organically-Inspired, UV-Cured Foam 3D "Prints"

Inspired by the bumblebee, Baran's approach to 3D printing takes advantage of the properties of dish soap foam.

Gareth Halfacree
4 years ago3D Printing

3D printing enthusiast Michał Baran is developing a printing method with a difference: It creates firm objects out of a homemade photopolymer foam, in a process inspired by bumblebees.

"One day, I went to the kitchen, got some dish soap. Then I mixed it with UV resin. I made a minifoamer, a foaming attachment for an airbrush," Baran explains in an interview with Fabbaloo on the topic. "I cured formed foam by UV flashlight. Yes – this is a rude, primitive method but it works! There is an even simpler solution (my second choice) – you can use foam soap dispenser, from bathroom this time… So all this machinery you can fit in your pocket, and it will cost you only a few bucks…"

Baran's technique isn't a million miles away from how a resin-based 3D printer works, and uses many of the same materials. By layering foam, rather than liquid, though, advantages are gained. "Irradiation is equally important — not only the power and wavelength, but also the direction. Since each time we create a fragment of a spatial object, the lighting should be around this place," he tells Fabbaloo.

"Notice how lucky we are — in a normal situation, photopolymers polymerize in a very thin layer. That is why we are always doomed to layering… Larger volumes cannot be polymerized. The foam is very voluminous but consists of extremely thin material walls. Therefore, for our resin, a foam works like a spatial optical fiber! This is a wonderful circumstance."

Baran's foam-printing has been at least partially successful, in that he has indeed generated firm 3D objects from a mixture of dish soap and UV-sensitive photopolymer resin, but the objects in question are rather more organic and misshapen than prints from a traditional 3D printer. "I got the impression from Baran that his goal is simply to change the way people make things; to make things in a more simple manner," Fabbaloo's Kerry Stevenson notes. "It’s not clear whether he wishes to commercialize the project."

The full interview is now available on Fabbaloo.

Gareth Halfacree
Freelance journalist, technical author, hacker, tinkerer, erstwhile sysadmin. For hire: freelance@halfacree.co.uk.
Latest articles
Sponsored articles
Related articles
Latest articles
Read more
Related articles