18th March 2015

Revolutionary 3-D printing method is 100 times faster

A new 3-D printer uses light and oxygen to synthesise materials from a pool of liquid, up to 100 times faster and with far more accuracy than previous methods.

A new 3-D printing technology has been developed by Silicon Valley startup, Carbon3D Inc., enabling objects to rise from a liquid media continuously – rather than being built layer-upon-layer as they have been for the past 25 years. This method represents a fundamentally new approach to 3-D printing. Due to appear as the cover article in the 20th March print issue of Science, it allows ready-to-use products to be made up to 100 times faster than previous methods and creates previously unachievable geometries. This opens opportunities for innovation across a range of major industries.

The method – known as Continuous Liquid Interface Production (CLIP) – manipulates light and oxygen to fuse objects in liquid media, creating the first 3D printing process that uses "tunable photochemistry", instead of the traditional layer-by-layer approach that has defined the technology for decades. This works by projecting beams of light through an oxygen-permeable window into a liquid resin. Working in tandem, light and oxygen control the solidification of the resin, creating objects with feature sizes below 20 microns, about the width of a skin cell.

"By rethinking the whole approach to 3-D printing – and the chemistry and physics behind the process – we have developed a new technology that can create parts radically faster than traditional technologies by essentially 'growing' them in a pool of liquid," said Joseph DeSimone, the CEO of Carbon3D, who revealed the technology at a TED talk on 16th March.

CLIP enables a very wide range of materials to be used to make 3D parts with novel properties – including elastomers, silicones, nylon-like materials, ceramics and biodegradable materials. In the future, it might even be possible to create living matter, such as artificial meat, or replacement organs for transplantation into human bodies.

Conventionally made 3-D printed parts are notorious for having mechanical properties that vary depending on the direction the parts were printed because of the layer-by-layer approach. Much more like injection-moulded parts, CLIP produces consistent and predictable mechanical properties – smooth on the outside and solid on the inside.

“In addition to using new materials, CLIP can allow us to make stronger objects with unique geometries that other techniques cannot achieve, such as cardiac stents personally tailored to meet the needs of a specific patient,” said DeSimone. “Since CLIP facilitates 3-D polymeric object fabrication in a matter of minutes instead of hours or days, it would not be impossible within coming years to enable personalised coronary stents, dental implants or prosthetics to be 3-D printed on-demand in a medical setting.”

Through a sponsored research agreement between Carbon3D and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the team is currently pursuing further advances to the technology, including new materials that are compatible with it. Carbon3D has partnered with Sequoia Capital and several other firms to raise $40 million for commercialising the process.

“If 3D printing hopes to break out of the prototyping niche it has been trapped in for decades, we need to find a disruptive technology that attacks the problem from a fresh perspective and addresses 3D printing’s fundamental weaknesses,” said Jim Goetz, Carbon3D board member and Sequoia partner. “When we met Joe and saw what his team had invented, it was immediately clear to us that 3D printing would never be the same.”

“We had studied the additive manufacturing ecosystem comprehensively and had concluded that the promise far exceeded the current reality in the marketplace,” said Adam Grosser, Carbon3D board member and Managing Director at Silver Lake Kraftwerk. “When we witnessed the CLIP process, we believed we had found a company that had invented a solution to speed, quality, and material selection. We are proud to work alongside Carbon3D to create a new category of 3D manufacturing.”

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