Technology Wednesday, May 16, 2007. Post by DV82XL
Stereolithography is the most widely used rapid prototyping technology. Stereolithography builds plastic parts or objects a layer at a time by tracing a laser beam on the surface of a vat of liquid photopolymer. This class of materials, originally developed for the printing and packaging industries, quickly solidifies wherever the laser beam strikes the surface of the liquid. Once one layer is completely traced, it’s lowered a small distance into the vat and a second layer is traced right on top of the first. The self-adhesive property of the material causes the layers to bond to one another and eventually form a complete, three-dimensional object after many such layers are formed.
Fused Deposition Modeling is the second most widely used rapid prototyping technology, after stereolithography. A plastic filament is unwound from a coil and supplies material to an extrusion nozzle. The nozzle is heated to melt the plastic and has a mechanism which allows the flow of the melted plastic to be turned on and off. The nozzle is mounted to a mechanical stage which can be moved in both horizontal and vertical directions. As the nozzle is moved over the table in the required geometry, it deposits a thin bead of extruded plastic to form each layer. The plastic hardens immediately after being squirted from the nozzle and bonds to the layer below. The entire system is contained within a chamber which is held at a temperature just below the melting point of the plastic.
Thermal Phase Change Inkjets machines uses a single jet each for a plastic build material and a wax-like support material, which are held in a melted liquid state in reservoirs. The liquids are fed to individual jetting heads which squirt tiny droplets of the materials as they are moved in X-Y fashion in the required pattern to form a layer of the object. The materials harden by rapidly dropping in temperature as they are deposited. After the object is completed, the wax support material is either melted or dissolved away.
The Three dimensional printing starts by depositing a layer of powder object material at the top of a fabrication chamber. To accomplish this, a measured quantity of powder is first dispensed from a similar supply chamber by moving a piston upward incrementally. The roller then distributes and compresses the powder at the top of the fabrication chamber. The multi-channel jetting head subsequently deposits a liquid adhesive in a two dimensional pattern onto the layer of the powder which becomes bonded in the areas where the adhesive is deposited, to form a layer of the object. Once a layer is completed, the fabrication piston moves down by the thickness of a layer, and the process is repeated until the entire object is formed within the powder bed. After completion, the object is elevated and the extra powder brushed away leaving a “green” object. No external supports are required during fabrication since the powder bed supports overhangs.
The Selective Laser Sintering process is somewhat similar to stereolithography in principle. In this case, however, a laser beam is traced over the surface of a tightly compacted powder made of the construction material be it metal or plastic. The powder is spread by a roller over the surface of a build cylinder. A piston moves down one object layer thickness to accommodate the layer of powder. Heat from a laser melts the powder where it strikes under guidance of a scanner system. SLS offers the key advantage of making functional parts in essentially final materials. However, the system is mechanically more complex than stereolithography and most other technologies.
In Laminated Object Manufacturing profiles of object cross sections are cut from paper or other web material using a laser. After cutting of the layer is complete,it is stacked on previous layers to form the finished object. In general, the finish, accuracy and stability of paper objects are not as good as for materials used with other RP methods. However, material costs are very low, and objects have the look and feel of wood and can be worked and finished in the same manner. This has fostered applications such as patterns for sand castings. While there are limitations on materials, work has been done with plastics, composites, ceramics and metals.
Laser Engineered Net Shaping® and similar laser powder forming technologies are gaining in importance and are in early stages of commercialization. A high power laser is used to melt metal powder supplied coaxially to the focus of the laser beam through a deposition head. The laser beam typically travels through the center of the head and is focused to a small spot by one or more lenses. The X-Y table is moved in raster fashion to fabricate each layer of the object. The head is moved up vertically as each layer is completed. Metal powders are delivered and distributed around the circumference of the head either by gravity, or by using a pressurized carrier gas. An inert shroud gas is often used to shield the melt pool from atmospheric oxygen for better control of properties, and to promote layer to layer adhesion by providing better surface wetting. A variety of materials can be used such as stainless steel, Inconel, copper, aluminum etc. Of particular interest are reactive materials such as titanium. Materials composition can be changed dynamically and continuously, leading to objects with properties that might be mutually exclusive using classical fabrication methods.
There are several other methods that have not yet reached commercialization, including techniques that utilizes photopolymers exposed and completely cured a layer at a time through a mask, electrosetting where material hardens in the presence of an electroctatic field, and several metal plasma depostion schemes.
Some good overviews of the field of Rapid prototyping can be found at these links.
Worldwide Guide to Rapid Prototyping
The Rapid Prototyping Home page
SciScoop Science is owned and operated by David Bradley Science Writer.