Germany-based 3D printer company Voxeljet has revealed the latest technology advancement for its High Speed Sintering (HSS) method. It is called Greyscale and 3D printing.
The process enables the production of singular pieces with changeable material attributes. This includes elasticity, material density, mechanical strength, and center of gravity, and weight.
The attributes may be each influenced in various fields of the 3D printed piece minus being seen in the part.
HSS 3D printing is an inkjet’s technology developed and licensed by Neil Hopkinson in the early 2000s at the University of Loughborough.
The procedure includes the application of a light coat of plastic powder to a burnt structure floor. An inkjet model head passes across the stage and sprays an infrared light-absorbing paint in chosen regions of the build.
The system platform is then displayed to infra-red light. This allows the printed parts of the synthetic power to consume the heat. As a result, the powder sinters with the beneath layers. After the sintering level is finished, the structure platform is dropped by a single layer. Also, the procedure reproduces itself until an object is made.
Hopkinson went ahead to invent the HSS procedure with Xaar. This is a UK based supplier of inkjet print heads and he works here as the Director of Technology. Xaar granted a license to Voxeljet in 2016 to market the HSS procedure and grow its own 3D printers furnished with technology. The year that followed, the firm created the method for its VX200 3D printer.
Voxeljet has had the capacity to include what it calls 3-dimensional mechanical properties into a 3D printed piece. It did this by changing the HSS process’ greyscale. This refers to the quantity of ink printed into the powder. This is about 6 varying grey levels that may be printed into the powder material based on the material utilized.
The greyscale per volume may be altered by switching the drop size of the infrared-absorbing ink through printhead bitmaps.
More thermic power may be consumed from the infrared lamp through the printhead material and this is with the darker grey tones. The different ink input levels enable the varying hardness degrees in the 3D printed piece. As a result, there is are diverse material attributes in one piece.
