New 3D Printer Technology Can Print 30 Times Faster Than Previous Designs
This new 3D printer technology prints at a rate more than a factor of 30 times better than previous state-of-the-art techniques.
3D printing is all about balancing detail with speed. If a part needs more detail, that requires printing at a small scale. The Square-Cube Law tells us that printing at a small scale will take exponentially longer than printing at a large scale, given the same overall volume — the relationship isn’t linear. So if you want a part that is both large and very detailed, you’re looking at a very long print job. The only solution is to improve the printing speed at a small scale. This new 3D printer technology does exactly that and prints at a rate more than a factor of 30 times better than previous state-of-the-art techniques.
This technology is an improved version of stereolithography (SLA) 3D printing, which was actually the very first 3D printing process ever developed. During SLA 3D printing, a laser is shot into a reservoir of photosensitive polymer. When that polymer resin is exposed to the light from the laser, it hardens and solidifies. While many other 3D printing processes have been developed since SLA printing was introduced in the ‘80s, it still remains the most precise method. That’s because the laser can be focused to a very small point and directed by motorized mirrors with very little moving mass.
In this case, the printing is essentially an advanced version of microstereolithography that uses a two-photon beam Ti:Sa laser. That is capable of printing voxels (3D pixels) that are a mere 100 nm (1/10,000,000thof a meter). That is detailed enough for the even the most demanding applications, but would normally take a very long time to print anything of a substantial size. By refracting the laser beam using tiny mirrors that can be tilted as needed, they were able to print multiple points in parallel. Over the course of two days, this technology was able to print about three hundred billion voxels. That surpasses the previous record holder by more than a factor of 30. Advances like this will make it possible to print large, highly-detailed parts in much more practical time frames.