“The 3D printing process is no longer a way to merely make a replica of the designed model,” Sun said. “Now we have a dynamic process that uses light to assemble all the layers but with a high degree of freedom to move each layer along the way.”To achieve this, Sun’s team used a photopolymer resin and a complex robotic arm. A photopolymer is a polymer whose properties change when exposed to light (probably most popularly-known outside of 3D printing for their use in UV-cured fillings at the dentist’s office). In this case, shining light on the polymer makes it crosslink, turning it into a solid. Sun’s team used a DLP-based printer with a liquid resin vat, using projected light to “freeze” the resin as it came out of the vat.

A robot arm with six degrees of freedom helped the Northwestern team change layers during the printing process. (Image via Additive Manufacturing).

Dynamic changes applied to a model of the Eiffel Tower show off the flexibility of this new printing process. (Image via Northwestern University)

A 3D double helix, one of the team’s prototypes, is pulled from a vat of liquid resin (Image via Additive Manufacturing).
“This is a very fast process, and there is no interruption between layers,” Sun said. “We hope the manufacturing industry will find benefit in it.”
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