3D Systems Steps Into Multi-Material 3D Printing

3D Systems offers a very large suite of 3D printers, from personal to industrial, but none offered before has the capability of their new ProJet 5500x. What’s so different about it? 

 

The ProJet 5500x can print in multiple materials. 

  

To put that in perspective, the only other manufacturer that’s offered such a capability is Stratasys, through their Objet line that uses the Polyjet process. 3D Systems now includes MultiJet Printing (MJP) capability in the 5500x. 

 

This means that you can load two different kinds of materials into the 5500 and the print head will “precisely mix” them at the instant of printing. You can print mixes of hard and soft parts, mixes of colors, etc. This is a significant capability that is now offered by two companies. 

 

The 5500x currently can use three different materials: 

 

• A rigid, ABS-like white material
• A flexible, black rubber-like material
• A Clear, polycarbonate-like material

 

This car was printed on the 5500x, including the soft tires. 

  

This is an example of mixing clear with a rigid plastic. 

  

Choose any two and start mixing! That is, if you can afford the USD$250,000 price tag on the 5500x. 

 

Via 3D Systems

Cornell 3D Prints a Working Audio Speaker

Researchers at Cornell University have developed a method that is capable of 3D printing an entire, working audio speaker. 

 

The process involves two different 3D printers: one prints the basic structure in plastic, while the other prints the electronic parts within the plastic structure. 

 

It's a two-stage operation, to be sure, but it is indeed entirely 3D printed. 

 

The researchers believe multi-material 3D printing will open up many possibilities. Associate Professor Hod Lipson says:

 

We're trying to move away from printing plastic parts to being able to print integrated systems, active systems that can have batteries and wires.

 

 

Check out the video, particularly at the end where they actually play sound on the speaker. Sounds much better than Alexander Graham Bell's first experience, even though the historical significance might be similar. 

 

Via Cornell

USC Investigating Multi-Material 3D Printing

Researchers at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering led by Professor Yong Chen have demonstrated a new method of 3D printing multiple materials. By "multiple" we mean two materials that can be combined in different ratios. For example, the process can print an object that has both hard and soft portions - in different degrees - and do this in a single print operation. 

 

The only other process known to accomplish this type of multi-material 3D printing is Stratasys' PolyJet process. However, the new USC process, a modification of their previously developed mask-image-projection-based stereolithography (MIP-SL) process, is dramatically faster than the Stratasys process. 

 

The new process seems destined for commercial use eventually, but as of this writing, it's not known when products using the MIP-SL multi-material approach. We hope it's soon. 

 

Via USC

TTP's Multimaterial 3D Print Head

Perhaps the most significant technology barrier in 3D printing today is the limitation of materials. Most 3D printers can produce only a single material at a time. Some manufacturers have short-circuited this problem slightly by adding additional print heads to enable more than one material, and only one (Stratasys) has the technology to mix (only two) different materials in a single print job. 

 

But that may change with the announcement by TTP of Cambridge UK of their new Vista 3D print head technology. The Vista 3D is said to be the first 3D print solution that "can print with more than one material". We take that to mean "different materials shoot down the same pipes." If true, this would be an earthshaking development. 

 

TTP says the Vista 3D is able to print "ceramics, and even biological cells, as well as the traditional metals and plastics" by using a newly developed "method in droplet ejection". They say: 

 

Vista 3D print heads can print both organic and inorganic materials including ceramics, biological cells, enzymes, metals, plastics and a broad range of other chemical materials.

 

We do not have much in the way of technical specifications for this technology, as it is not a printer; it's more of a design. However, the technology can print 0.050mm particles as well as viscous fluids of almost any sort. One can imagine the number of possible materials if it is simply solid particles embedded in a binder fluid. There are many types of particles. 

 

However, this is only a print head. It's NOT a 3D printer. We expect quite a bit of work is yet required to integrate this technology into a working, reliable 3D printer. There will be challenges in developing fluid materials that can be commercially viable and successfully stored and delivered to the printhead. There will be legal challenges - perhaps from competing patents and certainly work required to negotiate deals with 3D printer manufacturers wishing to use Vista 3D. 

 

Once those challenges have been overcome, we expect to finally see entirely new styles of 3D printers; machines that can truly print complex objects with multiple materials. 

 

Via TTP (PDF)