Additive manufacturing.   That’s how it started.

Basically, we develop a printer (of sorts) that instead of using ink, using materials as the substrate.  Plastic. Cells. Metal.  And, while we claim it makes a 3 dimensional object, what it really does is repetitively produce a two dimensional “print” over and over and over again.  In so doing, the printer builds up the intended structure to be the three dimensional object desired.

Well, thanks to a radical (that’s their claim- and they are probably right) new development, things in 3D-land are about to change.

Carbon3D (founded by Drs. Samulksi and DeSimone) just introduced their new development.  First in the conventional way.  They provided information on their development in Science.  Mssrs. (some are Ph.D.’s) John Tumbleston, David Shirvanyants, Nikita Ermoshkin, Ashley Johnson, David Kelly, Kai Chen, Robert Pinschmidt, and Jason Rolland, (all of Carbon3D), as well as Drs.  Rima Janusciewicz, Alexander Ermoshkin, Edward Samulski, and Joseph DeSimone (all of UNC, although all but Janusciewicz are also affiliated with Carbon3D)  presented their results in this article: Continuous liquid interface production of 3D objects.

The article describes how they produce monolithic (smooth products) 3D objects (including those larger than 10 cm) with a resolution of 100 micrometers.  That’s an amazing improvement over what we’ve done until now.  Oh- and the products can be produced in minutes- not hours.

And, since this is a commercial enterprise, the developers needed to create more buzz than just publishing a scientific treatise.  They decided to provided a Ted Talk– you know those 10 to 20 minute presentations before “enlightened” audiences.

The developers claim it was their perspective as chemists and physicists (not mechanical engineers) that enabled them to think outside the box- literally- of the 3 D printer developers.  Instead of layer-by-layer printing, their CLIP (continuous liquid interface production) device seems to induce the product to form out of thin air.

There is a pool of resin and a digital light (actually ultraviolet light, to cure the resin) projection system.  The other key is they employ a window (think gas permeable contact lenses), which affords both light and oxygen transmission.  The CLIP uses bursts of light and oxygen (think of plasma)- during which the UV light cures (or hardens) the resin and the oxygen prevents the hardening (or curing).

Controlling these packets of light and oxygen affords the ability to product intricate objects- shapes and lattices- in a single piece and not layer upon layer.  Chemists know that providing oxygen to a polymer matrix is one way to slow down or cease resin curing- this is just the next step in that concept.

Their initial product targets are fitness bands, microneedles, and drug delivery systems.

Share this: