6th April 2021 10:48 am 6th April 2021 10:48 am
Engineers in the US have created a prototype 3D printing platform with adjustable metal pins that negate the need to print excess support structures.
Many additive methods rely on printing additional support material in order to maintain part integrity during the manufacturing process, particularly for complex components. These excess structures must then be removed and the part finished by hand, something that can result in shape inaccuracies or surface roughness. Furthermore, the additional material can often not be reused, leading to increased waste.
The new platform, developed by scientists at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, features programmable, dynamically controlled metal pins to replace the printed supports. According to the researchers, testing of the prototype demonstrated around a 35 per cent saving in the materials required to print certain parts.
Dynamic platform cuts 3D printing waste by 35% 06 Apr 2021
Professional Engineering
The dynamically controlled surfaces (a) reduce the need for printed supports (b) to cut waste material (Credit: Yong Chen) A dynamically controlled surface with moving metal platforms can cut material usage in 3D printing by reducing the need for “wasteful” printed supports, its developers have said.
Printing times could also be shortened thanks to the new technique, said the researchers from the University of Southern California (USC).
As conventional 3D printers create custom objects layer-by-layer, they often need to print supports to balance the product. These supports are manually removed after printing, which requires finishing by hand and can result in shape inaccuracies or surface roughness. The materials the supports are made from often cannot be reused, so they are discarded and contribute to the growing problem of 3D-printed waste material.
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Researchers develop moving platform for 3D printing that can cut waste, costs ANI | Updated: Apr 06, 2021 19:40 IST
California [US], April 6 (ANI): Researchers from USC Viterbi School of Engineering have developed a unique low-cost dynamically controlled surface for 3D printers that reduces waste and saves time.
The work, led by Yong Chen, professor of industrial and systems engineering, and PhD student Yang Xu, has been published in Additive Manufacturing.
3-D printing has the potential to revolutionize product design and manufacturing in a vast range of fields from custom components for consumer products to 3-D printed dental products and bone and medical implants that could save lives. However, the process also creates a large amount of expensive and unsustainable waste and takes a long time, making it difficult for 3-D printing to be implemented on a wide scale.