16 micron resolution? What's the tech?

I just came across this commercial/office 3D printer. They say it prints with two materials simultaneously and it can mix materials to do a range of textures and properties in between. They also mention it prints at 16-micron / layer resolution.

What kind of technology is this using? From the video minute marker 2:20 and on, it looks like it may be depositing a liquid resin and curing it with a light. What do you guys think?

http://www.engadget.com/2011/07/10/objet260-connex-makes-3d-printing-cheaper-feasible-for-cramped/

Yep, it's laying down thin layers of resin in the same way injet printers deposit ink then it cures each layer with a UV light.

We have the Eden 333 here in the office and its a good machine but its being sold off soon and being replaced with a new SLA machine, all the Objet machines make nice looking parts but they have their qwirks.

-Print heads are a bit unrelyable,
-No waranty on print heads. (makes you wonder how much confidence they have in their design)
-material is not stable for temps above 60oC
-The materials smell terrible.
-Parts lose their dimensional accuracy when lots of support is used. This is probably why the objet machines have small build envelopes.
-Over priced

... the discussion what's better - additive or subtractive - is interesting too
[www.2bot.com]

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Viktor
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Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]

I think the "3D Printer Feeds On Paper and Glue" even a more interesting technology.
Normal paper, special glue.

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Bob Morrison
Wörth am Rhein, Germany
"Luke, use the source!"
BLOG - PHOTOS - Thingiverse

Hi Bob,

... this is the 'old' LOM approach, what was mostly abandoned around 1995 when the STL (STereoLitho) printers went mature ... but then the cutting was mostly made with CO2-lasers, so the surfaces were more brownish like wood ...

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Viktor
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Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]

These presentations are also a little deceptive. From the animations you might think that this machine builds things one layer each pass and the process would be very fast. In fact they use only a few jets and interlace them to build one layer.
So these machines are actually pretty slow.

There is different approach though by curing the resin selectively at the surface using a projector which this guy uses...
[3dhomemade.blogspot.com]

Not much openness and all but at least something
You loose the ability to print multiple material objects though.


But I guess something that could be considered direct digital rapid production hasn't been invented yet

Yes, I have been following 3D Printer - High Resolution - DIY for a while BUT his progress is very slow, but he has 50 micron resolution AND the resin is also very expensive! At the rate he is going it will be a couple of years before you could get the plans/information needed to copy his 3d printer.

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Bob Morrison
Wörth am Rhein, Germany
"Luke, use the source!"
BLOG - PHOTOS - Thingiverse

While this fellows printer is slow the process itself could certainly be accelerated.
From how I understand it the only limit is the power output of the projector and (very much later) the reactivity of the air and the viscosity of the resin.

There are few techniques which could one day compete with traditional mass manufacturing and imo this kind of stereo-lithography is one of them. I doubt this will ever be the case with FDM.

I am interested because of the resolution but since an entire layer is done at once the speed is N cm/h regardless of the size of the object, so yes, if you can speed up the layer cure time then you can end up with a very fast 3d printer.
It is also simpler to build since it only needs a single stepper motor for the Z-axis!

Definitely worth following...

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Bob Morrison
Wörth am Rhein, Germany
"Luke, use the source!"
BLOG - PHOTOS - Thingiverse

Simpler to build yes, but somehow I feel it is harder to run. Having followed his blog for a while, he was having a lot of issues at the beginning trying to get large objects to stick to his build platform. That was something he seems to have solved though, so who knows..

Some more info on the Paper 3D printer from Mcor

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[richrap.blogspot.com]

I wonder if it were possible to print molten PLA in this "inkjet" manner. It's viscosity might be sufficiently low to do this.

I am thinking of an "extruder" where the orifice is too small for the pressure built up from regular extrusion but wide enough to squirt out tiny droplets using a piezoelectric element or a heater to create a gas bubble. This way we might get a similar resolution but wouldn't depend on uv curing.

such a small droplet of PLA has a lot of surface area for it's volume, so I think it would cool in transit and just bounce off the surface, unless the print head was very close to the surface.

edit: However, this doesn't have to be so bad. if a coat of glue was sprayed on fist, the little solid balls would stick to the glue. it's be like a powder bed printer, except applying the powder selectively.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/14/2011 05:10PM by Buback.

... i don't think you will receive single droplets - for the inkjet nozzles the fluid medium should have a viscosity lower than water ... fluids with higher viscosity won't separate ...

I developed a nanodispenser for fluids with more than 40000 MPas (viscosity like toothpaste) where a needle pinches single droplets and places them mechanically on the surface, but it's only capable of some droplets per second, so much slower than with inkjetting ...

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Viktor
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Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]