3D Printing In Gel Enables Freeform Design and an Undo Function 33
Zothecula writes "The additive layer process of conventional 3D printers means they are usually limited to bottom up fabrication on three axes. Now, the LA-based NSTRMNT team has created a 3D printing process called suspended disposition that gets around gravity by printing objects within a gel. Not only does this allow freeform additive fabrication on six axes, it also enables an 'undo' function."
resin+gel as support material (Score:4, Informative)
you can do support materials with some other techniques as well. easily dissoluable(sp?) support material for fdm style machines would be really useful, that printed well(the materials that print well now tend to need nasty chemicals). I'm not sure why the robot in this case has to be a six axis one, seemingly the technique would be just fine with a 3 axis printer?
Re:resin+gel as support material (Score:4, Informative)
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yes, but why the 6 axis? they could build it bottom up within the gel with 3, so why 6 which makes this considerably(so much more that mentioning arduino as control electronics doesn't matter at all, since it's such insignificant expense) more expensive?
Re:resin+gel as support material (Score:4, Insightful)
However, I'm guessing that the real reason is that they happened to have a 6 axis manipulator lying around and using it would have been cheaper than building a specialized unit.
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As this is a line scanning process, it will probably take just as scanning a laser to build up an object layer by layer.
Though the laser would probably be faster, even with resin recoat time, typical laser scan for stereolithography are around 4-25 meters per second.
I doubt there is any robot that can go that fast and maintain 0.1 mm accuracy.
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This allows you to print "unbalanced" objects, e.g. those that would tip over when you print layer-by-layer.
any support material approach allows that. on fdm it's crucial that the part is attached to the platform by considerable force anyways, tipping isn't the problem.
seems familiar... (Score:3)
Does it self-recycle?
Is it vulnerable to cold?
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This goo, is it grey?
Does it self-recycle?
Is it vulnerable to cold?
That's a must-see episode.
This would be epic (Score:2)
Organs (Score:5, Interesting)
As one comment on the original article says. This is the way to do organs. The original gel can be agar like or other cellular support matrix then you can print in a circulatory system with external interface then add in the actual organ cells. Let it mature a bit and finish up by washing off the original gel.
Re:Organs (Score:4, Funny)
This method can also make entire clones. And remember, clones are always hot and wear thermal bandages.
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This method can also make entire clones. And remember, clones are always hot and wear thermal bandages.
Well, that's just reasonable. Why would you add additional, unwanted material to the model? It's expensive and takes longer!
like Michaelangelo said, (Score:3)
If you want to make a great sculpture, all you have to do is find a rock and carve away everything that isn't part of the sculpture.
Re:like Michaelangelo said, (Score:5, Funny)
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Well, the arm is pretty but the results are not. (Score:2)
Gravity is not the problem (Score:1)
Gravity is not the reason why supports are used in stereolithography type 3d printing, shrinkage is.
When a photopolymer solidifies it shrinks, and I'd imagine that this process would have many of the same shrinkage issues.
Re:Gravity is not the problem (Score:4, Informative)
Gravity is not the reason why supports are used in stereolithography type 3d printing, shrinkage is.
Gravity is sometimes the reason why supports are used in both STL and FDM. Shrinkage is the reason why George repeatedly shouted "I was in the pool!"
Improvement (Score:2)
I think they could do better if they had a 2d mesh of individually controlled apetures that had switchable nozzles that could easily switch between extruding gel and resin. The printing speed would be ridiculously fast.
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Someone has actually done this [usc.edu], sans switchable nozzles or gel. They were able to make centimeter high objects of decent resolution in minutes.
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That's quite different. While it's a parallel process, nothing's being extruded. It's stereolithography, which means that a resin is being cured one layer at a time. Commercial systems like this exist (which use a projector to expose an entire layer at a time, rather than raster scanning a laser across it). A major limitation is that you can only make things out of photo-curable resin. If someone were to develop a parallel extrusion system as Stoutlimb suggested, you would be able to use a much larger varie
embarrassing quality (Score:2)
A high school project out of legos would outdo this pathetic effort.
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It's not embarrassing at all. It's a proof-of-concept.
Bah. Only 59 seconds aloft? Those Wright Brothers should be embarrassed.
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