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Researchers have shown a technology that can change the way parts are created.
Imagine that you drop a liquid polymer into a transparent tub, turn on the light, and in half a second you have a complex three-dimensional detail ready. Not "almost ready", not "the first layer has gone", but already completely, with all the bends and internal cavities. This is exactly the trick shown by a team of researchers from Tsinghua University: they learned how to print microscopically detailed objects not for hours, but in fractions of a second.
The problem with 3D printing is long-standing and annoying. If you want it fast, you lose accuracy. If you want to be precise, you put up with the fact that the printer "embroider" the product in layers for half a day. In a new paper, the authors propose a way to almost turn this compromise inside out: instead of building an object point by point or layer by layer, they form the entire volume at once using a special set of light projections designed like holograms.
The method was called DISH, which is short for "digital incoherent synthesis of holographic light fields." The bottom line is that the system "sculpts" the desired shape with light right inside the resin container: many projections from different angles are combined so that the material solidifies in the right places during a short exposure and remains liquid around. To do this, instead of rotating the entire container, they came up with a rotating periscope that quickly changes the direction of projection, and a digital micro-mirror matrix (DMD) forms a pattern of light that can update the image at a very high frequency.
According to an article in Nature, the installation retains a printed resolution of about 19 micrometers at a depth of 1 centimeter and can "sculpt" a millimeter object in about 0.6 seconds. The thinnest elements in the demonstrations reach up to 12 micrometers, which is about a fifth of the thickness of a human hair.
Why it's important not only for the wow effect. Volumetric printing is especially interesting where either very small parts, or a large series, or both are needed at once: miniature optical components, micromechanics, elements for photonic devices, as well as models of biological fabrics when shape and microrelief are critical. The authors separately show compatibility with acrylate materials of different viscosities and describe the mode of "in-line" manufacturing in a channel with liquid material, that is, not just single samples, but a reserve for replication.
Imagine that you drop a liquid polymer into a transparent tub, turn on the light, and in half a second you have a complex three-dimensional detail ready. Not "almost ready", not "the first layer has gone", but already completely, with all the bends and internal cavities. This is exactly the trick shown by a team of researchers from Tsinghua University: they learned how to print microscopically detailed objects not for hours, but in fractions of a second.
The problem with 3D printing is long-standing and annoying. If you want it fast, you lose accuracy. If you want to be precise, you put up with the fact that the printer "embroider" the product in layers for half a day. In a new paper, the authors propose a way to almost turn this compromise inside out: instead of building an object point by point or layer by layer, they form the entire volume at once using a special set of light projections designed like holograms.
The method was called DISH, which is short for "digital incoherent synthesis of holographic light fields." The bottom line is that the system "sculpts" the desired shape with light right inside the resin container: many projections from different angles are combined so that the material solidifies in the right places during a short exposure and remains liquid around. To do this, instead of rotating the entire container, they came up with a rotating periscope that quickly changes the direction of projection, and a digital micro-mirror matrix (DMD) forms a pattern of light that can update the image at a very high frequency.
According to an article in Nature, the installation retains a printed resolution of about 19 micrometers at a depth of 1 centimeter and can "sculpt" a millimeter object in about 0.6 seconds. The thinnest elements in the demonstrations reach up to 12 micrometers, which is about a fifth of the thickness of a human hair.
Why it's important not only for the wow effect. Volumetric printing is especially interesting where either very small parts, or a large series, or both are needed at once: miniature optical components, micromechanics, elements for photonic devices, as well as models of biological fabrics when shape and microrelief are critical. The authors separately show compatibility with acrylate materials of different viscosities and describe the mode of "in-line" manufacturing in a channel with liquid material, that is, not just single samples, but a reserve for replication.
