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Process 3D-Prints Highly Detailed Objects in Under 30 Seconds

Researchers at EPFL  introduce a new method for 3D-printing tiny, detailed soft objects. The system is currently capable of making two-centimeter structures with a precision of 80 micrometers. The process, called high-resolution tomographic volumetric additive manufacturing, takes less than 30 seconds from beginning to end. The printing process works by sending a laser through a translucent gel, either a biological gel or liquid plastic. The laser then hardens the liquid via polymerization. Depending on what object is being created, algorithms are used to calculate exactly how and where to aim the laser beams. The EPFL team has published the findings in Nature Communications  , and has set up a spin-off company, Readily3D  , to further develop and market the system.

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Manufacturing & Prototyping Materials Photonics

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    Transcript

    00:00:13 It is a printer that is able to build the entire volume of an object at the same time whereas other 3D printers usually build the object layer by layer. This technology is extremely fast. It can print objects in a few tens of seconds whereas other technologies could take hours. We can also process more delicate structures, such as organic shapes like vasculatures, and we can also process softer materials such as hydrogels. It has a very high resolution because the process is light based, and for biologists, we have the added advantage that we can print inside sealed, sterile containers which prevents contamination. We know the object we want to build, and to generate it, we illuminate

    00:00:59 a liquid photosensitive resin from multiple angles, and after a while, the accumulation of light dose will result in the local solidification of the resin, which creates the object. Another aspect of this technology that we invented here is the speed of the process. The speed is so fast it takes seconds to make either soft or hard objects that we can think of taking this printer and make it closer to the end-user. So, imagine for example at the dentist office, the dentist is scanning the teeth of the patient in 3D, and then masks aligners could be done within minutes at the at the patients desk.