How Far Have 3D Printers Come in the Last 12 Years?

As Objet is celebrating its 13th birthday this month I thought it would be a good time to show this great photo, kindly provided by Eduardo Napadensky. (Can you believe it was so old that I actually had to scan it?)

On the left is what our 3D printers looked like at the very beginning. This was the Objet Quadra Tempo back in the early days of 2000, with Eduardo in yellow and Avi Cohen in the white lab coat.

And in the photo below is where we are today, a mere 12 years later. Avi (now Head of Objet Medical and Dental Solutions) and Eduardo (now Chief Technology Officer) stand next to Objet's newest multi-material 3D printer – the Objet260 Connex, released in July.

The original Quadra Tempo was a game changer in its time. Delivering 20 micron print layers, the machine featured 1536 jet nozzles in 4 print heads, based in a single block and the machine printed one material, known in its time as M510.

In comparison, today's Objet260 Connex delivers double the print quality, from just half the number of print nozzles, at a significantly higher run speed – and in a machine with half the footprint.

In place of just one material it features a choice of 68 different materials with ranging properties from opaque to transparent, rigid to flexible, and standard to engineering plastics. It can also combine up to 14 different material properties and color shades within a single model prototype (!)

Here's to many more incredible developments in 3D printing and rapid prototyping from Objet in the years ahead…

3D Printing: biomimicry

micking the human nervous system by Jessica Rosenkrantz.  Beautiful, no?

AM / RP Technologies

A large number of competing technologies are available in the marketplace. As all are additive technologies, their main differences are found in the way layers are built to create parts. Some are melting or softening material to produce the layers (SLS, FDM) where others are laying liquid materials thermosets that are cured with different technologies. In the case of lamination systems, thin layers are cut to shape and joined together.

As of 2005, conventional rapid prototype machines cost around £25,000.

Prototyping technologies	Base materials
Selective laser sintering (SLS)	Thermoplastics, metals powders
Fused deposition modeling (FDM)	Thermoplastics, eutectic metals.
Stereolithography (SLA)	photopolymer
Laminated object manufacturing (LOM)	Paper
Electron beam melting (EBM)	Titanium alloys
3D printing (3DP)	Various materials

Rapid prototyping worldwide

In 2006, John Balistreri and others at Bowling Green State University began research into 3D Rapid Prototyping machines, creating printed ceramic art objects. This research has led to the invention of ceramic powders and binder systems that enable clay material to be printed from a computer model and kiln fired for the first time.

The Audi RSQ was made by Audi with rapid prototyping industrial KUKA robots

Introduction to Additive (Rapid) Manufacturing,Prototyping & Tooling

Rapid prototyping is the automatic construction of physical objects using additive manufacturing technology. The first techniques for rapid prototyping became available in the late 1980s and were used to produce models and prototype parts. Today, they are used for a much wider range of applications and are even used to manufacture production-quality parts in relatively small numbers. Some sculptors use the technology to produce complex shapes for fine arts exhibitions.

The use of additive manufacturing for rapid prototyping takes virtual designs from computer aided design (CAD) or animation modeling software, transforms them into thin, virtual, horizontal cross-sections and then creates successive layers until the model is complete. It is a WYSIWYG process where the virtual model and the physical model are almost identical.

With additive manufacturing, the machine reads in data from a CAD drawing and lays down successive layers of liquid, powder, or sheet material, and in this way builds up the model from a series of cross sections. These layers, which correspond to the virtual cross section from the CAD model, are joined together or fused automatically to create the final shape. The primary advantage to additive fabrication is its ability to create almost any shape or geometric feature.

The standard data interface between CAD software and the machines is the STL file format. An STL file approximates the shape of a part or assembly using triangular facets. Smaller facets produce a higher quality surface.

The word "rapid" is relative: construction of a model with contemporary methods can take from several hours to several days, depending on the method used and the size and complexity of the model. Additive systems for rapid prototyping can typically produce models in a few hours, although it can vary widely depending on the type of machine being used and the size and number of models being produced simultaneously.

Some solid freeform fabrication techniques use two materials in the course of constructing parts. The first material is the part material and the second is the support material (to support overhanging features during construction). The support material is later removed by heat or dissolved away with a solvent or water.

Traditional injection molding can be less expensive for manufacturing polymer products in high quantities, but additive fabrication can be faster and less expensive when producing relatively small quantities of parts. 3D printers give designers and concept development teams the ability to produce parts and concept models using a desktop size printer.

Rapid prototyping is now entering the field of rapid manufacturing and it is believed by many experts that this is a "next level" technology.