New 3D printing makes it easier to create much more intricate designs

By Gwyn Wright via SWNS

A new type of 3D printing which makes it easier to create much more intricate designs has been developed by engineers.

A team at Stanford University cracked the new method which does not involve slowly building up objects layer by layer.

Instead, objects can be printed within a stationary amount of resin.

The printed object is fully supported by the thick resin, like an action man standing in a block of jelly, which means the printed object can be added to from any angle.

This ends the need for support structures which are normally needed when making complex designs.

The new system should make it easier to print intricate designs that once were very difficult to create while saving time and material.

To make the new material, the researchers focused a laser through a lens and shone it into a gelatinous resin that hardens when it is exposed to blue light.

They could not simply use a blue laser as it would cure along the entire length of the beam.

Instead, they used a red light and some cleverly designed nanomaterials scattered throughout resin to create blue light at only the precise focal point of the laser.

By shifting the laser around the container of resin, they were able to create detailed, support-free prints.

The research lab, led by Dr. Dan Congreve, specializes in converting one wavelength of light into another using a complex process called triplet fusion upconversion.

When the right molecules are next to each other, a chain of energy transfers can change low-energy red light particles into high energy blue ones.

After undertaking various steps, which included sending some of the materials for a spin in the blender, the team were able to form the right molecules into droplets and coat them in a protective silica shell.

They then distributed tiny nanocapsules, all one thousand times smaller than the width of a human hair, throughout the resin.

The researchers are now looking to print several points at the same time, which would make the process a lot faster and enable them to print at higher resolutions and smaller scales.

The nanocapsules could also be used to improve the efficiency of solar panels and even have potential for use in operations.

Dr. Congreve said: “The ability to do this volumetric printing enables you to print objects that were previously very difficult.

“It’s a very exciting opportunity for three-dimensional printing going forward.”

“I got interested in this upconversion technique back in grad school.

“It has all sorts of interesting applications in solar, bio, and now this 3D printing.

“Our real specialty is in the nanomaterials themselves – engineering them to emit the right wavelength of light, to emit it efficiently, and to be dispersed in resin.

“Our ability to control materials at the nanoscale gives us a lot of really cool opportunities to solve challenging problems that are otherwise difficult to approach.”

The findings were published in the journal Nature.