Although 3D Systems established itself in 1986 as a company focused on rapid prototyping for industrial purposes, the inventor of stereolithography (SLA) 3D printing began to focus considerable attention on the consumer segment after the desktop 3D printing explosion, which began around 2012. However, a change in management in October 2015 ushered in a change in priorities that saw 3D Systems shutter its consumer line and turn its attention back to industrial technology. At the annual Additive Manufacturing Users Group (AMUG) Conference earlier this month, the company showed off Figure 4, an industrial SLA system designed not for rapid prototyping, but for the mass manufacturing of 3D-printed parts.
SLA is the process by which an ultraviolet (UV) light (or laser) is used to harden a UV-curable polymer resin layer by layer in order to form a three-dimensional physical object. As the company tells it, the name and concept for the new Figure 4 SLA machine comes from 3D Systems founder Chuck Hull’s original 1984 patent for SLA technology. The fourth illustration in Hull’s filing, “Fig. 4,” illustrates an SLA process,a light source projecting from beneath the liquid resin and a print bed lifting the printed object up from the vat of material. The new Figure 4 system, however, is much, much more than this diagram would indicate.
An important ingredient in the Figure 4 SLA recipe is the use of a specialty membrane that lies between the liquid resin and the print bed. The specifics of this membrane have not yet been disclosed, but the concept is a familiar one, recently made known by Carbon, a startup that’s been gaining a lot of attention with the release of a 3D printing process Carbon describes as 25 to 100 times faster than other 3D printing technologies. Carbon’s own now-famous ultra-fast 3D printing process. With Carbon, a special window made from what’s called an amorphous fluoropolymer (Teflon AF 2400) allows oxygen to flow between the light source and the resin, resulting in impressive rates of fabrication.
Given the fact that Carbon’s process is patented, how similar is 3D Systems’ new technology? The light source, for instance, has not yet been disclosed; it is likely a type of digital light processing (DLP) projector, as the speeds achievable by a laser are much slower. Lasers take longer because they move along the X-Y direction, scanning each layer incrementally, whereas processes using DLP technology effectively cure one layer at a time. The materials developed for Figure 4 also hint at similarities to Carbon’s resin portfolio, as they have been engineered for multi-mode polymerization of material properties such as rigidness, elasticity, ruggedness, and temperature deflection. However, one aspect that is definitely different from Carbon’s technologyis the overall printer setup.
Rather than use a typical single-axis motor mechanism to lift the print bed from the resin, as in a system like Carbon’s M1 3D printer, Figure 4 relies on an industrial robotic arm, which gives the system profound capabilities for mass manufacturing. The robotic arm raises the print bed with each layer and, after rapidly printing an object, carries it over to subsequent post-processing stages where excess material is removed, the object is properly cleaned, and then cured further. All steps are programmed so that Figure 4 can perform them autonomously, replacing the need for manual intervention typically associated with SLA 3D printing.
The Figure 4 platform has a modular design; each station can be modified or the robotic arms can be scaled up. Several industrial robots can work together to increase the productivity of the entire system, with one printer performing the printing and another executing the post-processing steps. One might even imagine an infinite array of these bots working in unison to make up a completely autonomous factory geared toward mass customization. Goods would no longer be manufactured with a one-size-fits-all attitude; each person could receive a unique item, tailored to individual specifications. If 3D Systems can actually pull off such a system, its consumer division may just be a thing of the past.
About the Author
Michael Molitch-Hou is a 3D printing specialist and the founder of The Reality™ Institute, a service institute dedicated to determining what’s real and what’s not so that you don’t have to. He is a graduate of the MFA critical studies and writing program at CalArts, and a firm advocate of world peace.