New Type of 3D Printing Uses Sound Waves To Build Up Objects

A team of scientists at Canada's Concordia University are using sound waves to print intricate three-dimensional objects. The technology is known as direct sound printing (DSP). New Atlas reports: In the current version of the technique, a transducer is used to send focused pulses of ultrasound through the sides of a chamber, into liquid polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) resin contained within. Doing so produces ultrasonic fields, which cause rapidly oscillating microscopic bubbles to temporarily form at specific points in the resin. As those bubbles oscillate, the temperature inside them rises to about 15,000 degrees Kelvin (14,727C or 26,540F) and the pressure within them climbs to over 1,000 bar (14,504 psi). Although this sudden increase in temperature and pressure only lasts for picoseconds (trillionths of a second), it causes the resin to solidify at the exact location of the bubble. Therefore, by incrementally moving the transducer along a predetermined path, it's possible to build up an intricate three-dimensional object -- one tiny pixel at a time. Along with its ability to produce very small, detailed items, DSP also allows structures to be non-invasively printed inside other structures that have opaque surfaces. [...] Besides the PDMS resin, the scientists have also successfully used DSP to print objects made of ceramic material. They now plan on experimenting with polymer-metal composites, followed by pure metal. The research has been published in the journal Nature Communications.

Can people stop using "DSP"

[shaitand]

This acronym is already taken by VERY well known and implemented technology... technology almost certainly involved in the implementation of THIS new technology they are calling DSP. Name it something else FFS.

Re:

[mark-t]

Indeed, if they really needed a TLA, I'm quite baffled as to why they didn't cal it URP, for ultrasonic resin printing.

Re: Can people stop using "DSP"

[JoeRobe]

Because that's too specific. Almost certainly there's a patent associated with this that covers (or attempts to cover) generally using sound waves to print 3D objects. Maybe in the future they don't use ultrasonic waves, or maybe they don't use resins. So they want the name to reflect the potentially generalizable approach.

Not defending the use of "DSP" specifically, as it is an already widely used term, but I understand the desire to make it more general.

Re:

[mark-t]

What about "Acoustic Additive Manufacturing" then?

Re:

[Kurrelgyre]

It's not additive, lit's solidifying resin out of an existing pool.

Re:

[mark-t]

Resin 3d printing is still additive, it's just not filament-based.

Re:

[shaitand]

The SLA printer on desk agrees with you.

Re:

[mark-t]

It most definitely is. [hubs.com]

Stereolithography (SLA) is an additive manufacturing process that belongs to the vat photopolymerization family

I'm curious, what did you think additive manufacturing was that you thought resin 3d printing would not qualify as such?

Re:

[shaitand]

That wasn't me. I'm the one who complained about the TLA being hijacked.

When I need parts that aren't plastic I print them on the SLA printer and use the very high resolution result as a positive for a mold making. SLA is probably the most popular resin printing technology and is most definitely additive, using a laser to cure photosensitized resin layer-by-layer with the platform raising in small increments.

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[nospam007]

"What about "Acoustic Additive Manufacturing" then?"

It's obviously a SASER

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[drinkypoo]

Indeed, if they really needed a TLA, I'm quite baffled as to why they didn't cal it URP, for ultrasonic resin printing.

This is the first generation, eventually they'll be doing it with arrays instead of moving transducers. So I move we call it basic ultrasonic resin printing.

Re:

[HiThere]

Perhaps they'll want to apply this to something that isn't a resin.

OTOH, it's probably faster than some other approaches, so call it rapid printing...well, but this is the initial form so "basic rapid printing", and it's intended to be more useful than some other approaches, so...

Re: Can people stop using "DSP"

[flyingfsck]

Bespoke Ultrasonic Resin Printing

Re:

[gardyloo]

Maybe they had FFS (Fat-Finger Syndrome).

Re: Can people stop using "DSP"

[SuperDre]

Why another acronym? It is what it is, an acronym for Direct Sound Printing. It context that defines what the acronym stands for.

Interesting

[Xd3n]

Iâ(TM)m part of Elon Muskâ(TM)s statistics

Congratulations

[Anonymous Coward]

You've rediscovered Ultrasonic Additive Manufacturing. There are already commerically available ultrasound-powered metal printers, such as those from Fabrisonic.

Re: Congratulations

[SuperDre]

Yes fabrisonic is using ultrasound for 'printing' objects, but it's a different method as used here. With fabrisonic it's welding 'pieces' together, whereas this is directly positioning ultrasound in big vat of resin. It's a bit like regular resin printers where the UV light at the surface is solifying the resin while the object is 'pulled' out of the resin. Here it us actually solifying it directly IN the resin, at least from my understanding.

In a thermos flask

[NestedSnip]

So now you can finally build a ship in a thermos flask, where nobody can see it.

thing to make when it's hot and dry

[cstacy]

Are they going to print parts for stillsuits?

printing and sound waves

[cstacy]

New Type of 3D Printing Uses Sound Waves To Build Up Objects

Can they use it to print [slashdot.org] a transplantable artificial ear made of human cells?