Basics of 3D Printing

Tonight

• Local News
• History of plastic printing
• Types of plastic printing
• Basics of FDM/FFF
• Inside a Delta Style Printer

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History of 3D Printing

Info from Wohler's History of AM and Joel West's 2014 keynote at RWTH Aachen "Business and Economic Impacts of 3D Printing" Conference

Plastic Printing Types

• Stereolithography
  • UV light or laser curable resin solidifed layer by layer in liquid resin vat
• Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) / Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF)
  • filament extrusion layer by layer
• "3D Printing" - MIT now referred to as Binder Jet
  • Powder deposition across layer from powder feed
  • Akin to ink-jet printing, liquid binder joins powder together, post heat treat cures into solid part

FFF/FDM Basics

from reprap.org

FFF/FDM Basics

modified from reprap.org

Materials with FFF/FDM

modified from reprap.org

• Thermoplastics
  • PLA
  • ABS
  • HDPE
  • PP
  • Polymorph
• Nylon
• PCL
• Polycarbonate

Varying levels of strength, color options, print temperature and even VOC emissions

Common FDM/FFF printer

• Y and Z movements on the head
• X movements with the bed
• Options for multiple extruders, etc.

Delta-style printer

• Instead of cartesian, x,y,z moves, bed stays flat, arms move in circular fashion with 3 fixed movements
• print head can be very light - ↑ speed