In this lab, you will learn some knowledge about additive manufacturing, more importantly, how to operate the printers in the lab from beginning to the end. After this lab, you should be able to operate on your own.

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Table of Contents

Revision of Some AM Technology

This section covers the AM technologies available in our lab that you may use for your course project.

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Material Extrusion

Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM)
- Fused deposition modeling (FDM) 3D printing, also known as fused filament fabrication (FFF), is an additive manufacturing (AM) process within the realm of material extrusion. FDM builds parts layer by layer by selectively depositing melted material in a predetermined path. It uses thermoplastic polymers that come in filaments to form the final physical objects.

Vat Photopolymerization

Stereolithography (SLA)
- Traditional SLA printers used large vats of liquid resin with a laser above to cure each layer. These systems were expensive and complex, limiting their use to large companies. In 2011, Formlabs introduced inverted SLA printing with Form 1, where a laser cures resin through a transparent-bottomed tank. This allows for compact desktop printers using minimal resin.
Digital Light Processing (DLP)
- DLP 3D printing uses a light projector to cure liquid resin layer by layer. The projector uses micromirrors on a semiconductor chip, with each mirror representing a single voxel. The resolution depends on the number of mirrors and build area size.

Material Jetting (MJ)

PolyJet™
- PolyJet is a revolutionary multi-material jetting photopolymer 3D printing technology that brings your ideas to life with exceptional precision and versatility. From prototyping to production, PolyJet offers a wide range of capabilities, including the creation of complex geometries, intricate details, full-color combinations, transparencies, and flexible parts - all in a single model. PolyJet 3D Printing is an advanced technology that quickly creates precise parts using photopolymers, UV light, and inkjet heads. It achieves accuracy by layering resins to form digital materials. The process starts with a CAD model transformed into a printable format. Drops of photopolymer are jetted onto the build platform, then cured with UV lamps to bond layers. Support materials are dissolved or manually removed for the finished PolyJet model.

CAD File Formats and gcode

STL (Stereolithography)

STL is the most common file format for 3D printing. It describes only the surface geometry of a 3D object without any color, texture, or other attributes.

IGES/IGS (Initial Graphics Exchange Specification)

IGES is a vendor-neutral format for exchanging CAD data. It's particularly good at representing complex curved surfaces and is widely used in engineering applications.

STEP/STP (Standard for Exchange of Product Data)

STEP files are comprehensive CAD files that can contain both 3D models and associated metadata. They're excellent for preserving exact geometry and product information.

OBJ (Object)

OBJ files can store both geometry and texture information. They're commonly used in 3D graphics and animation, supporting color and texture mapping.