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Overview of 3D Printing Technologies
Overview of 3D Printing Technologies

August 18, 2023

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Introduction

3D Printing or Additive manufacturing technology assists in manufacturing three-dimensional products from digital geometric data by the successive addition of material in a layer-by-layer manner. In recent years we have noticed that AM technology experienced exponential growth in various manufacturing sectors such as, automotive, aerospace, health care, fashion, textile etc. If we see the history of 3D printing technology or process it was developed and commercialised by Charles Hull in 1980.

3D Printing Technologies

Over years of research and development various 3D printing/Additive manufacturing technologies have been developed as per the need of distinct applications. So, as per the ASTM standard F2792, 3D printing technology has been categorised into seven groups i.e., Material Extrusion, Vat Photo Polymerization (SLA/DLP), Powder Bed Fusion Technology (PBF), Binder Jetting, sheet lamination, Material Jetting, Directed Energy Deposition(DED) technologies. There are no discussions available in detail, on which technology is best, because each 3d printing technology or 3d printing machine is developed to fulfil the specific applications or need.

1. Vat Photo Polymerization

Vat photopolymerization is one of the oldest 3D printing techniques that are capable to produce 3d objects by curing the photopolymer liquid resins using the laser source or the UV light source. Photopolymer is a polymer which changes its properties, becomes solid when it is exposed to light. There are two types of vat photopolymerization methods: first is stereolithography popularly known as SLA and the second one is digital light processing popularly known as DLP method.

2. Powder Bed Fusion Technology(GOT)

The powder bed fusion technology (PBFT) consists of three methods i.e., electron beam melting known as EBM, second is selective laser sintering known as SLS and the third one selective heat sintering known as SHS techniques. These three methods of printing techniques use electron beam, laser source and thermal head to melt or fuse the powder-based materials. In the year 1987 Carl Deckard developed one of the powder bed fusion technologies i.e., selective laser sintering popularly known as SLS. The PBFT uses metals, ceramics, polymer based powdered materials to produce the 3d objects.

3. Directed Energy Deposition (DED)

Directed Energy Deposition (DED) additive manufacturing is one of the technologies which uses electron beam, laser or plasma arc as an energy source to melt the powdered or wired material. This method uses the same principle similar to the material extrusion method, but here both material and energy source are manipulated using gantry system or robotic arm-based nozzle which can move and rotate in any direction while in material extrusion method the nozzle can move in X, Y, Z direction but cannot rotate.

4. Material Extrusion

Material Extrusion method is also called as Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) or Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF). FDM AM techniques which uses continuous filament in the wired form of thermoplastic or composite material to manufacture the 3d objects from the digital CAD data. This is one of the most popular 3d printing methods amongst all the seven AM technologies. In this method thermoplastic material in the form of filament is fed into the extruder, where the heater softens the material, and it is pushed out through the nozzle in a semi-liquid state and the material is deposited as thin string of material over the build platform. Then the next layer of material is being laid over the already extruded material to develop a 3D Dimensional Object. With the material extrusion method, we can build multi-material or multi-colour 3D objects.

5. Binder Jetting

In the binder jetting 3d printing process a binder agent is being used to unite the powder particles. Over the fully packed powder layer, a binding agent is sprayed over the required locations in a layer-by-layer manner, this process continues until we get the desired shape & size of the object. In the binder jetting method, there is a variety of material availability such as metals, ceramics, polymers, and sands. This 3d printing process is simple and fast to produce large shape products.

6. Material Jetting

Next 3D printing technology is material jetting, in this method the printhead of the machine deposits the build material drop by drop. This method uses photosensitive material, and these materials are being deposited in the form of droplets in the layer-by-layer manner and curing is done by the ultra-violet UV light. With the help of this method, we will get high dimensional accuracy and very smooth surface finish. This method is capable of printing Multi material and multi colour printing.

7. Sheet Lamination

According to the ASTM standards the last 3D printing technology is sheet lamination. In this type of 3d printing method sheets of materials are bonded together to form the 3d objects. There are two methods in sheet lamination: the first one is laminated object manufacturing known as (LOM) and the other one is ultrasound additive manufacturing known as (UAM). An innovative approach called Ultrasound additive manufacturing can also be used, which uses sound to merge layers of metal sheets.

 

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