Despite
the 3D printing revolution shaking up the design and manufacturing
industries, one thing has been holding it back from fully infiltrating
more commercial day-to-day situations – it's slow. Most desktop printers
take well over an hour to generate a small object, but a new design
from engineers at MIT could completely change the 3D printing game,
performing up to 10 times faster than currently available devices and
printing complete objects in just minutes.
Associate professor of
mechanical engineering at MIT, Anastasios John Hart, and former graduate
researcher Jamison Go, focused on three fundamental factors that
limited the speed of a conventional desktop extrusion 3D printer: the
speed a printhead can be moved, the force pushing the printing material
through the nozzle, and the rate the material can be melted to make it
flow.
"Given our understanding of what
limits those three variables, we asked how do we design a new printer
ourselves that can improve all three in one system," says Hart. "And now
we've built it, and it works quite well."
The team ultimately
redesigned several mechanisms in and around the printhead and also added
a laser to melt the plastic filament more rapidly before it passes
through the nozzle. The resulting system, which they dubbed "FastFFF"
(fast fused filament fabrication), was up to 10 times faster than
comparable commercially available printers, taking just minutes to print
objects that previously would have taken up to an hour with a
conventional 3D printer.
According to the researchers, their prototype FastFFF system boasted a volumetric build rate of 127 cm3/hr,
which they say is around seven times greater than commercial desktop
FFF systems producing objects of a comparable resolution. However, at
its maximum extrusion rate the printhead would be able to produce
objects at 282 cm3/hr, which would be around 14 times greater than the
team's benchmarks.
But one design challenge still
looms over the engineering team before the design can be deemed
completely successful. Upping the speed of the printing process meant
that there wasn't enough time for each layer to entirely firm up before a
subsequent layer was printed.
"We found that when you finish
one layer and go back to begin the next layer, the previous layer is
still a little too hot," says Hart. "So we have to cool the part
actively as it prints, to retain the shape of the part so it doesn't get
distorted or soften."
The team is confident that
challenge can be resolved, with the implications of speeding up the 3D
printing process potentially resulting in some revolutionary outcomes
for several industries. Emergency medicine, for example, could 3D print
prosthetics in minutes while surgical procedures are taking place.
"If I can get a prototype
part, maybe a bracket or a gear, in five to 10 minutes rather than an
hour, or a bigger part over my lunch break rather than the next day, I
can engineer, build, and test faster," adds Hart. "If I'm a repair
technician and I could have a fast 3-D printer in my vehicle, I could
3-D-print a repair part on-demand after I figure out what's broken. I
don't have to go to a warehouse and take it out of inventory."
Take a look at the printer in action in the video below.
The new innovation was reported in the journal Additive Manufacturing.
Source: MIT via Eurekalert
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