Joshua Matthes reveals the latest hardware intended to act as an improvement for both FDM and SLA 3D printing. Mathes is from The University of New South Wales at the Australian Defence Force Academy. This is detailed in Photopolymer Resin Extrusion Hybrid 3D Printer.
By mixing photopolymer-based extrusion printing with an open-source Prusa i3 clone, Mathes highlights the benefits of both SLA and FDM printers. Presently, it is the more popular hardware utilized in digital fabrication today with FDM in the first slot. It holds the biggest share of a US $7.3 billion market.
It is because of the level of affordability and accessibility in FDM 3D printing savored across the world these days. The stereolithography also called the first kind of additive manufacturing were brought to in in the open the 80s by Chuck Hull.
However, the SLA-1 has recorded remarkable persistence, prevailing as the presently 2nd most-used technique. It is clear that Matthes would love to see SLA taken up to par with FDM.
“Although FDM printers have the ability to reach layer heights of 50 to 100 microns, fused deposition means they are still greatly limited by anisotropic qualities in the z-axis,” says Matthes.
“Comparatively, photopolymer manufacturing utilizes a chemical bonding process to create its product. In theory, this should lead to a better final product with isotropic properties compared to an FDM produced product.”
While Mathes tests with how to get the best of all the worlds to additive manufacturing consumers, he also explores alternative design strategies. They include warming of the resin or switching pipe dimensions for good extrusion.
But there are more challenges with unexpected outcomes with materials and temperature. Mathes makes efforts to stay in the scope of the project objectives as well.
This is while avoiding the introduction of fresh pats to the printer and analyzing the methods created in the last study.
Mathes notes that the use of a syringe is a good choice in comparison to a peristaltic pump avoiding loss of pressure.
