Engineers have developed a new desktop 3D printer that works 10 times faster than existing counterparts
University of Massachusetts engineers have developed a new desktop 3D printer that is 10 times faster than existing counterparts on the market. Most conventional printers are capable of producing several small Lego-sized figures within an hour. The new device prints similar items in just a few minutes.
The reason for the faster speed is the compact printhead of the printer. It contains two performance-enhancing components: a screw mechanism that passes the polymer at high speed through a nozzle and a laser that quickly heats and melts the material, making it easier to apply.
The new equipment has already been used to print various small, delicately made objects: eyeglass frames, gears, a miniature copy of the MIT building.
The operation of the printer demonstrates the prospects for 3D printing. “The ability to make a sample gear in 5-10 minutes rather than a full hour, or a large part in a lunchtime rather than a full day, makes it much faster to design, assemble and test equipment,” says Anastasios John Hart, director of one from the laboratories of the University of Massachusetts.
Hart envisions new technical solutions for emergency care and to meet a variety of needs in remote, hard-to-reach areas.
Earlier, the research team identified three factors that limit printer uptime. These are the speed at which the printer is able to operate the print head, the maximum force the head can apply to push material through the nozzle, and how quickly the head transfers heat to melt the material to a liquid state.
With the margins clearly visible, the developers, Hart said, wondered how to improve all three parameters in one system.
In most desktop 3D printers, the plastic is moved through a nozzle using a double pinch roller mechanism. This works well at relatively low speeds. However, as the load increases, the rollers lose their adhesion to other equipment components. Hart and his assistants abandoned the use of pinch rollers. They were replaced by a screw mechanism rotating near the print head. It was decided to use a textured plastic fiber. As the propeller rotates, it manages to grab the textured plastic at a faster speed and with more force. The use of a laser made it possible to accelerate the melting of the material.
In addition, the engineers used the original H-shaped hanging frame to move the printhead to different positions and planes.
After checking the operation of the new printer, the experts ran into a problem. The heating temperature was so high that the previous applied layer did not have time to cool down before the next one had to be applied. The developers are working on solving this problem now, they are also studying the possibility of using other materials (for example, composites) and increasing the scale of high-speed 3D printi
ng. Source: ecotechnica.com.ua