Mass Customization: Reuse of Digital Slicing for Additive Manufacturing

Author(s):  
Tsz-Ho Kwok ◽  
Hang Ye ◽  
Yong Chen ◽  
Chi Zhou ◽  
Wenyao Xu

Additive manufacturing, also known as three-dimensional (3D) printing, enables production of complex customized shapes without requiring specialized tooling and fixture, and mass customization can then be realized with larger adoption. The slicing procedure is one of the fundamental tasks for 3D printing, and the slicing resolution has to be very high for fine fabrication, especially in the recent developed continuous liquid interface production (CLIP) process. The slicing procedure is then becoming the bottleneck in the prefabrication process, which could take hours for one model. This becomes even more significant in mass customization, where hundreds or thousands of models have to be fabricated. We observe that the customized products are generally in a same homogeneous class of shape with small variation. Our study finds that the slicing information of one model can be reused for other models in the same homogeneous group under a properly defined parameterization. Experimental results show that the reuse of slicing information has a maximum of 50 times speedup, and its utilization is dropped from more than 90% to less than 50% in the prefabrication process.

Author(s):  
Tsz-Ho Kwok ◽  
Hang Ye ◽  
Yong Chen ◽  
Chi Zhou ◽  
Wenyao Xu

Additive manufacturing, also known as 3D printing, enables production of complex customized shapes without requiring specialized tooling and fixture, and mass customization can then be realized with larger adoption. The slicing procedure is one of the fundamental tasks for 3D printing, and the slicing resolution has to be very high for fine fabrication, especially in the recent developed Continuous Liquid Interface Production (CLIP) process. The slicing procedure is then becoming the bottleneck in the pre-fabrication process, which could take hours for one model. This becomes even more significant in mass customization, where hundreds or thousands of models have to be fabricated. We observe that the customized products are generally in a same homogeneous class of shape with small variation. Our study finds that the slicing information of one model can be reused for other models in the same homogeneous group under a properly defined parameterization. Experimental results show that the reuse of slicing information have a maximum of 50 times speedup, and its utilization is dropped from more than 90% to less than 50% in the pre-fabrication process.


2017 ◽  
Vol 1142 ◽  
pp. 245-249 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anil Saigal ◽  
John Tumbleston

In the rapidly growing field of additive manufacturing (AM), the focus in recent years has shifted from prototyping to manufacturing fully functional, ultralight, ultrastiff end-use parts. This research investigates the stress-strain behavior of an octahedral-and octet-truss lattice structured polyacrylate fabricated using Continuous Liquid Interface Production (CLIP) technology based on 3D printing and additive manufacturing processes. Continuous Liquid Interface Production (CLIP) is a breakthrough technology that grows parts instead of printing them layer by layer. Lattice structures such as the octahedral-and octet-truss lattice have recently attracted a lot of attention since they are often structurally more efficient than foams of a similar density made from the same material, and the ease with which these structures can now be produced using 3D printing and additive manufacturing. This research investigates the stress-strain behavior under compression of an octahedral-and octet-truss lattice structured polyacrylate fabricated using CLIP technology


Author(s):  
Xueyong Deng ◽  
Bingxue Huang ◽  
Rui Hu ◽  
Liling Chen ◽  
Yingying Tang ◽  
...  

Three-dimensional (3D) printing technology with satisfied speed and accuracy has been a powerful force in biomaterial processing. Early studies on 3D printing of biomaterials mainly focus on their biocompatibility and...


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoyu Zhao ◽  
Ye Zhao ◽  
Ming-De Li ◽  
Zhong’an Li ◽  
Haiyan Peng ◽  
...  

AbstractPhotopolymerization-based three-dimensional (3D) printing can enable customized manufacturing that is difficult to achieve through other traditional means. Nevertheless, it remains challenging to achieve efficient 3D printing due to the compromise between print speed and resolution. Herein, we report an efficient 3D printing approach based on the photooxidation of ketocoumarin that functions as the photosensitizer during photopolymerization, which can simultaneously deliver high print speed (5.1 cm h−1) and high print resolution (23 μm) on a common 3D printer. Mechanistically, the initiating radical and deethylated ketocoumarin are both generated upon visible light exposure, with the former giving rise to rapid photopolymerization and high print speed while the latter ensuring high print resolution by confining the light penetration. By comparison, the printed feature is hard to identify when the ketocoumarin encounters photoreduction due to the increased lateral photopolymerization. The proposed approach here provides a viable solution towards efficient additive manufacturing by controlling the photoreaction of photosensitizers during photopolymerization.


Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (12) ◽  
pp. 3149
Author(s):  
Angelika Zaszczyńska ◽  
Maryla Moczulska-Heljak ◽  
Arkadiusz Gradys ◽  
Paweł Sajkiewicz

Tissue engineering (TE) scaffolds have enormous significance for the possibility of regeneration of complex tissue structures or even whole organs. Three-dimensional (3D) printing techniques allow fabricating TE scaffolds, having an extremely complex structure, in a repeatable and precise manner. Moreover, they enable the easy application of computer-assisted methods to TE scaffold design. The latest additive manufacturing techniques open up opportunities not otherwise available. This study aimed to summarize the state-of-art field of 3D printing techniques in applications for tissue engineering with a focus on the latest advancements. The following topics are discussed: systematics of the available 3D printing techniques applied for TE scaffold fabrication; overview of 3D printable biomaterials and advancements in 3D-printing-assisted tissue engineering.


Author(s):  
Morteza Vatani ◽  
Faez Alkadi ◽  
Jae-Won Choi

A novel additive manufacturing algorithm was developed to increase the consistency of three-dimensional (3D) printed curvilinear or conformal patterns on freeform surfaces. The algorithm dynamically and locally compensates the nozzle location with respect to the pattern geometry, motion direction, and topology of the substrate to minimize lagging or leading during conformal printing. The printing algorithm was implemented in an existing 3D printing system that consists of an extrusion-based dispensing module and an XYZ-stage. A dispensing head is fixed on a Z-axis and moves vertically, while the substrate is installed on an XY-stage and moves in the x–y plane. The printing algorithm approximates the printed pattern using nonuniform rational B-spline (NURBS) curves translated directly from a 3D model. Results showed that the proposed printing algorithm increases the consistency in the width of the printed patterns. It is envisioned that the proposed algorithm can facilitate nonplanar 3D printing using common and commercially available Cartesian-type 3D printing systems.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dhinakaran Veeman ◽  
M. Swapna Sai ◽  
P. Sureshkumar ◽  
T. Jagadeesha ◽  
L. Natrayan ◽  
...  

As a technique of producing fabric engineering scaffolds, three-dimensional (3D) printing has tremendous possibilities. 3D printing applications are restricted to a wide range of biomaterials in the field of regenerative medicine and tissue engineering. Due to their biocompatibility, bioactiveness, and biodegradability, biopolymers such as collagen, alginate, silk fibroin, chitosan, alginate, cellulose, and starch are used in a variety of fields, including the food, biomedical, regeneration, agriculture, packaging, and pharmaceutical industries. The benefits of producing 3D-printed scaffolds are many, including the capacity to produce complicated geometries, porosity, and multicell coculture and to take growth factors into account. In particular, the additional production of biopolymers offers new options to produce 3D structures and materials with specialised patterns and properties. In the realm of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine (TERM), important progress has been accomplished; now, several state-of-the-art techniques are used to produce porous scaffolds for organ or tissue regeneration to be suited for tissue technology. Natural biopolymeric materials are often better suited for designing and manufacturing healing equipment than temporary implants and tissue regeneration materials owing to its appropriate properties and biocompatibility. The review focuses on the additive manufacturing of biopolymers with significant changes, advancements, trends, and developments in regenerative medicine and tissue engineering with potential applications.


Materials ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (20) ◽  
pp. 4534 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elżbieta Bogdan ◽  
Piotr Michorczyk

This paper describes the process of additive manufacturing and a selection of three-dimensional (3D) printing methods which have applications in chemical synthesis, specifically for the production of monolithic catalysts. A review was conducted on reference literature for 3D printing applications in the field of catalysis. It was proven that 3D printing is a promising production method for catalysts.


Micromachines ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 796 ◽  
Author(s):  
Honghui Chu ◽  
Wenguang Yang ◽  
Lujing Sun ◽  
Shuxiang Cai ◽  
Rendi Yang ◽  
...  

Since the late 1980s, additive manufacturing (AM), commonly known as three-dimensional (3D) printing, has been gradually popularized. However, the microstructures fabricated using 3D printing is static. To overcome this challenge, four-dimensional (4D) printing which defined as fabricating a complex spontaneous structure that changes with time respond in an intended manner to external stimuli. 4D printing originates in 3D printing, but beyond 3D printing. Although 4D printing is mainly based on 3D printing and become an branch of additive manufacturing, the fabricated objects are no longer static and can be transformed into complex structures by changing the size, shape, property and functionality under external stimuli, which makes 3D printing alive. Herein, recent major progresses in 4D printing are reviewed, including AM technologies for 4D printing, stimulation method, materials and applications. In addition, the current challenges and future prospects of 4D printing were highlighted.


Author(s):  
Judah Balli ◽  
Subha Kumpaty ◽  
Vince Anewenter

The purpose of this paper is to understand and research literature on the “continuous liquid interface production (CLIP)” of 3D objects to address the current challenges. This proprietary technology was originally owned by EiPi Systems but is now being developed by Carbon 3D. Unlike conventional rapid prototyping of printing layer-by-layer to print 3D objects, CLIP is achieved with an oxygen-permeable window made of proprietary glass membrane and the ultraviolet image projection plane below it, which allows the continuous liquid interface to produce 3D objects where photo-polymerization is restricted between the window and the polymerizing part. This process eliminates the time requirement in between the layers resulting in the faster production of 3D objects with a resolution less than 100 microns. It is a known factor that the “supports” play a vital role in any liquid based 3D printing techniques and this does not change in CLIP. In addition to the parameters of support structure like shape, size, strength, ease of removability, surface finish after removal of supports etc, CLIP needs to deal with different types of materials. The support structure needs to be designed according to the respective material’s properties. There are two broad categories of the materials available from Carbon 3D, prototyping resins, and engineering resins. While the prototyping resin is used for the cosmetic models and the engineering resins are used for the practical applications. There are 6 types of engineering resins developed for the end user; of these, EPU and CE are more challenging to work with. EPU parts needs more supports and careful handling till the completion of post processing as the material is soft. CE parts are fragile and needs more systematic handling to complete the successful production. Although printing parts of EPU and CE is more time consuming when compared to the normal CLIP process, they are worth for their unmatched industrial applications. None of the existing 3D printing technologies offers this quality. The support structure, orientation and pot life are the influencing parameters for all resins. In this study, it is statistically proven that by optimizing the part orientation with respect to the slicing of each layer and customized supports; parts are built way better than before. The part orientation is optimized by ensuring each layer is supporting the subsequent layer and minimizing the islands. It is noticed that the results are always better by tilting the part 5 to 10 degrees in both X and Y axis in the build setup and this applies for most of the straight geometrical parts. For parts of specific geometry which can create a vacuum while pulling up the part needs to be oriented in a different way or create a re-closable air passage that can prevent the vacuum being created.


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