Check this out!
“3D printing, or additive manufacturing, has the potential to revolutionize how we make things, enabling custom production of almost anything you could want. Researchers are looking into applications of 3D printing ranging from printing entire houses to artificial human organs. But 3D printing hasn’t fully caught on yet, in part due to the time-consuming nature of the process—it typically relies on building items up through a layer-by-layer approach that can take many hours. For additive manufacturing to become more generally useful, printing speeds need to increase by an order of magnitude.
A team of researchers at UNC-Chapel Hill have developed a new 3D printing process that may be fast enough to change the tide for 3D printing. Their process allows for the continual printing of objects using a liquid interface in a single step, unlike the previous step-wise processes.
To accomplish this, these scientists took advantage of a problem typically associated with 3D printing methods that relies on light to initiate polymerization (photo-polymerization): the ability to control oxygen levels. When present, oxygen reacts with the polymerizing chains, which significantly slows down the reaction. Oxygen must therefore be limited for the curing process, which hardens the product. In 3D printing, the material is typically printed in air and cured under a UV light; since oxygen is likely present, this process is slower than it could be.
The new technique proceeds by projecting a continuous sequence of UV images through the bottom of an oxygen-permeable, UV-transparent _ The window is below a liquid resin bath that is essentially a solution of chemical reactants. This window allows a small amount of oxygen to enter, creating a “dead zone” where the curing process cannot proceed. As a result, the dead zone maintains a liquid interface directly above it. The UV images then pattern the structure as it emerges from the dead zone.
The advancing part is attached to a build support plate located above the resin bath, which continuously moves upward as the part is printed below. This allows constant renewal of reactive liquid resin that the part is built out of. Overall, the process looks a bit like pulling a solid object out of a liquid bath—one that can be much shallower than the object being pulled. ” Source: Endgadget.com
I wonder when will we see pieces made out of liquid metal… Looks like Terminator 2