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Interview with Glassomer’s Dorothea Helmer: 3D Printing Fused Silica Glass on Desktop SLA Machines

Dr. rer. nat. Dorothea Helmer specializes in organic and inorganic chemistry and works at Glassomer. Along with Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Bastian E. Rapp and Dr.-Ing. Frederik Kotz she co-founded the company. Glassomer is trying to solve one of the most difficult and elusive problems in 3D printing, 3D printing glass, and optically clear components. The path they have chosen is to use stereolithography resins to make fused silica glass. The firm has found methods to make glass through methods usually reserved for polymers. Glassomer’s work really blew me away and I was just as amazed that there wasn’t more press about this incredible technology. In a technologically-astounding manner, we can now create optical objects with standard desktop machines (and debinding and sintering equipment).

The Glassomer Team (Image: Markus Breig/KIT.)

What is Glassomer?

The Glassomer GmbH is a start-up situated in Freiburg, Germany. Glassomer invented and patented a technology that lets us process glass like a polymer – hence Glass-o-mer. The process is based on a resin that contains a large amount of glass particles that can be structured by UV light, for instance in the 3D printer. After developing the parts are processed in an oven to give transparent fused silica glass.

What products do you make?

We sell the resins for molding and for stereolithography printing. We further do feasibility studies and small series prototyping of custom glass products.

Why is fused silica glass interesting?

Fused silica glass is a highly interesting material due to its outstanding optical transparency combined with its high chemical and thermal resistance and pleasant haptics. That makes it interesting for optics, as well as chemical glass ware but also decorative objects.

How can I 3D Print it?

The Glassomer material can be printed using standard benchtop stereolithography printers as long as the printer is material open.

From start to finish how does the manufacturing of a part work?

Glassomer resins can be shaped using a benchtop stereolithography printer or by casting against molds made our of e.g. silicones. Like other resins, the material polymerizes under UV light. The parts are washed and then processed at high temperature to give transparent fused silica glass. This process is executed in two steps: removal of the resin and sintering of the glass particles.

Do I need specialized equipment?

The printing process needs a standard, material open stereolithography printer. The thermal debinding process needs a programmable oven with temperatures up to 600 °C. Sintering requires an oven that withstands 1300 °C.

Is the process predictable?

During the sintering process the part shrinks but the shrinkage is completely isotropic (the same in each direction) and thus highly predictable and can be easily calculated in advance. For makers, they just need to resize their original print by the percentage of the shrinkage. For the Glassomer L50 formulation the linear shrinkage is 15.6 %.

Is it optically clear?

The finished part is completely transparent and clear. Fused silica is the purest glass out there, and it shows a high optical transparency throughout the wavelength spectrum of ultraviolet, visible and infrared light.

What can It be used for?

It can be used for printing optical parts, small chips or decorative objects. In general, for everything that requires high transparency and small structures, Glassomer is the material of choice.

What customers are you seeing?

Glass is a versatile material used in a great variety of fields. Our customers come from different fields like optics & photonics, chemistry, MedTec. But we also get a lot of interest form the jewellery, art and design sectors.

What do you hope to achieve?

Glassomer has the potential to revolutionize the way we fabricate glasses. Glass shaping has always been a challenge – up until now it is not something that people could be easily be doing at home. Now working with glasses is as simple as working with polymer clay. We want to make glasses accessible to every modern fabrication technology – besides 3D printing that includes high-throughput processes like industrial molding. This way high precision glass parts will become customizable and affordable. In the future, all compact optics like the cameras in smartphones will be made from glass – ensuring a higher quality and robustness.

What do you expect to be able to make in mSLA?

Glasses are the number one material used in data transfer – fast internet connections rely on glass fibre cables. Those cables need to be connected to the electronics that we ultimately use for generating the data. Using mSLA and 2-photon polymerization we want to make compact optics and connectors to ensure a higher transfer efficiency.

How strong and durable is it?

The material is real fused silica glass. It is not the same glass we use for e.g. windows, it is of much higher purity. Fused silica is very stable against chemicals or heat. Upon heating it almost does not expand, thus you can (other than our everyday glassware) put it in a flame of 1000 C and then instantly cool it under water without causing cracks. It is, however, a glass – if you hit it with enough force, it will break.

What other variants will you develop?

So far the material is accessible to stereolithography printing we will further develop technologies for fused deposition modeling and other forms of 3D printing and industrial molding.

What is holding back 3D Printing?

We still live in a world of abundance – the industry will need more time to understand that the future of fabrication is high-quality on-demand customized products instead of unspecific over-production. 3D printing still needs to improve in terms of production fidelity, production speed as well as available materials. At Glassomer we constantly work on expanding the material palette of 3D printing and hope to contribute a significant part to the industrial advance of 3D printing.

The post Interview with Glassomer’s Dorothea Helmer: 3D Printing Fused Silica Glass on Desktop SLA Machines appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing.

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Large Build Volume, High Quality, Fast and Cost Effective, The G3D T-1000

T-1000 DLP 3D Printer by G3D

The T1000, manufactured by G3D, has disrupted the desktop SLA 3D print industry. The unit has the largest build volume with the fastest build speed in its price category and represents the most cost-effective solution for newcomers to skilled engineers for complicated prototypes.

G3D announces lifetime warranty and upgrades to new products for universities, colleges and other educational institutes as well as prototype manufacturers. For details contact www.g3dsys.com.

Dubbed the T-1000, the DLP SLA product of G3D is designed to have the cost-effectiveness and large build volume of FDM machines while also having the quality and high-tech appearance of SLA machines. For their Black Friday promotion, G3D is offering the printer for only $1,500! This offer is available for November 29 – December 10 2019 only!

Batch of rook models printed on the T-1000 (56 models)

Dreamcatcher printed in the T-1000 using clear resin

The T-1000, having a maximum build volume of 7.06 in x 5.29 in x 11.81 in allows users to print models with large print volumes like a leg prosthetic model or an almost 12 in replica of the Eiffel tower:

Prosthetic leg model printed in the T-1000

Almost 12-in replica of the Eiffel Tower printed on the T-1000

To cater to the varying demand of users of 3D printer machines, the T-1000 was also designed to have a small volume print configuration where the user can increase the quality of the prints up to 100 μm x-y resolution and 7.5 μm layer height for finer and more detailed prints.

Small gears printed on the T-1000 using Black Matte resin

To change the printer settings from large build volume to small build volume the user would only need to turn a knob on the T-1000 to change the configuration, recalibrate the printer for this new setting and update the slicer settings in the software. G3D designed the T-1000 to be this easy with no need for replacing or upgrading parts.

With this quality and size, the T-1000 also doesn’t miss on the speed. The T-1000, with the backbone of Digital Light Processing technology where the cross-section of the model is cured all at the same time, can achieve maximum speeds of up to 2.6 in/hr. This means you can print a max build on the printer (11.8 in) in only 4.6 hours. Compared to laser SLA technologies and FDM which traces the cross section of the object being printed, DLP, because it cures the whole cross section at the same time, allows the user to print for the same length both 1 model or multiple models on the build plate. G3D endorses that this capability will allow users to 3D print multiple models per batch without worrying about increasing the printing time.

Digital Light Processing (DLP) of the T-1000 in action

For prototyping activities this speed reduces the turnaround time to produce prototypes allowing engineers and designers to rapidly verify their designs and models speeding up their rapid prototyping process.

With this affordable price, especially with the Black Friday promotion, schools would also be able to affordably purchase and use the T-1000 allowing them to experience a fast, reliable and high-volume 3D printer, the next generation of 3D printers in their own classrooms.

Ease of use was also put in mind with the patented 4-point Bed Calibration System. Coupled with the tilting mechanism for easier peeling of the model from the FEP film, the T-1000 can produce prints unsupervised.

Another factor that increases the cost-effectiveness of the T-1000 is the consumables which are only the resin and vat, this would only cost the user around $75/L (standard resin) and T-1000 vat ($45, 30L life).

Comparing to a known SLA 3D printing machine manufacturer using G-Boy (a G3D standard model) with a volume of 13.8 ml, printing using their clear resin would cost the user around $2.06/model ($149/L) while printing using G3D clear resin would only cost around $1.04/model ($75/L).

G3D G-Boy model computer file (left), 3D printed using T1000 (right)

For heavy users consuming 5L/week, this translates to more savings. For the competitor’s resin this would cost the user around 5L times $149/L ($745) plus $59/2L times 5L ($147.5) for resin tank (standard) replacement every 2L for a total of $892.5/week or $46,410/year. Using G3D T-1000 this will only cost the user 5L times $75/L ($375) plus $45/30L times 5L ($7.5) for G3D vat replacement every 30L for a total of $382.5/week or $19,890/year. Using G3D T-1000 for high volume prints will save you $26,520/year! Allowing you to purchase a lot more 3D printers and scale your capabilities.

Operating cost comparison for G3D and SLA Competitor

But wait there’s more! For heavy volume users, G3D promises to replace the vat for FREE when ordering for more resins if there are signs of wear and tear before using more than 10L!

G3D have also invested in producing quality resins to make sure customers would be satisfied in the G3D platform. Currently, the company has the following resins:

Resins produced by G3D (same color labels are matte and non-matte options)

Each of the standard and colored resins only cost around $75/L and available in colored and matte colored options.

G3D resins also include functional resins for functional 3D printing. The company has Tough resin ($85/L) designed to withstand 6000 psi of pressure (equivalent to 6000 pounds of force per square inch) for functional parts and prototyping. Flexible resin ($109/L) for soft parts and flexible parts. And Heat resistant ($105/L) resin that can withstand 500 degrees Fahrenheit temperature for high temperature resistant parts and models.

Functional resins by G3D (from top-left clockwise) Flexible resin gray, Heat Resistant resin, Flexible resin white, and Tough resin

G3D also doesn’t limit the user on the resins that you can use on their printer. The printer was designed to have no custom fit container, no complex loading mechanisms, so the user can pour and use any resin he likes, just make sure that the resin is designed for 405nm DLP 3D printing as the light engine of the T-1000 emits curing UV at 450 nm wavelength. This simple design also prevents clogging and other 3D printer problems from the resin.

G3D T-1000 in the showroom

You can see more sample prints by G3D through following their Instagram page.

The post Large Build Volume, High Quality, Fast and Cost Effective, The G3D T-1000 appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing.

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Interview with Martin Forth of RAPLAS on Open Materials Manufacturing With 3D Printing

Martin Forth of RAPLAS wants to bring 3D printing to manufacturing. This is quite a popular narrative at the moment. But, far from the smoke and mirrors of startup land, there are real reasons to believe Martin’s effort over hordes of industry newbies; Martin’s experience, for one. Martin spent two years building RAPLAS and before that spent thirteen years at EnvisionTEC. This already means that he has significantly more experience than 95% of our industry. Only, before EnvisionTEC, Martin spent six years at 3D Systems, joining the 3D printing industry in 1996. 1996. Independence Day, Trainspotting, Braveheart, No Diggity, Unbreak my Heart, Clinton, 1996. Thanks to AMUG, we now consider veterans of 3D printing Dinosaurs, but Martin is practically a fern. He’s seen it all and tried to implement rapid prototyping, free form fabrication, rapid manufacturing and what not previously. So when he gets together a super experienced firm to bring production 3D printing technologies to manufacturing with a focus on resins, sand, and metal, all with open materials, we take notice.

What is Raplas? 

Raplas was set up in 2014 and develops technical solutions for industrial manufacturing and high-quality prototype development. Currently, we have released systems for the production of plastic parts and for casting applications and have shown early samples from our metal printing technology. We are focusing on high-end manufacturing applications hence the size and performance of our equipment.

How did you evolve as a firm? 

Raplas grew from the experiences of the board within the additive industries, who have all worked within the additive industries since the mid 1990’s, we felt that current technology was not addressing the needs of production manufacturing entirely , either through cost of equipment or materials, repeatability for large batch production, accuracy, surface finish  or speed. So we set about designing and marketing technology that could satisfy these requirements. All of the board, management and staff of the company have come with many years of valuable experiences of using, designing and marketing this type of technology as well as the knowledge of operations in associated industries.

What kind of machines do you make?

We make machines and materials for all additive applications all are large frame to suit the professional production markets and fully open allowing the users the widest choice of materials at competitive prices.

Why large scale SLA?

We always felt that SL has always been the gold standard when the combined attributes were added together, but had a long way to go to realise its true possibility. Our understanding of capabilities and requirements showed there was a strong need in the market for a machine that moved the technology on to another level- this was what we brought to our first beta customers with our generation one machines. When we introduced our gen2 machines we really moved forward by another considerable step in productivity and capabilities . Our Gen 2 Systems are very fast compared to other competing technologies, that is consistently physically accurate to within 50 micron over the entire build area, so it makes sense to utilise a large build area for production purposes. For instance we have a client that produces over 1000 electrical components in one build which lasts approx. 4 to 5 hours so they can produce 4000 components per day. The total annual production is 15,000 sets with 6 components per set… so the annual requirement is 90,000 parts in total. All of these  parts can be printed in less than a week and have no need for 6 injection mould tools.

What do your customers use the systems for? 

Manufacturing end use parts as well as prototypes and short test batches.

What industries use your systems?

All applications from Automotive to Audiology, Dental, Medical, NPD, through to tooling and casting.

Why should I work with you?

We feel the merits of our technology and experience of our customers is a compelling reason for potential customers to work with us. We always put the customer’s needs first and are prepared to tailor our solutions to particular clients needs if required. We recognise that a one size fits all approach doesn’t work in a production environment as clients have existing processes that we have to work alongside with. This may mean matching various speeds or material properties to fall in line with current expectations through optimisation of the system through to developing new materials specific for that client.

What kinds of materials do you offer?

We have a general purpose ABS resin in white, gray and crystal clear , class IIb medical grade resin and castable resins that have a low HDT and low ash. For mold manufacture we offer Sand and Ceramic options as well as polymer solutions for direct mold manufacturing. With our forthcoming metal solution, there will be a number of technical materials and it will initially be offered with stainless and aluminium.

What exciting new applications are you seeing emerge?

We’re seeing strong demand for extra mechanical properties and we are working with a number of different players to deliver unique solutions to customer needs. As we see Electronic devices getting smaller more precise components are required; this is pushing the boundaries of injection moulding.

3D printing has the ability to  disrupt traditional manufacturing process as a solution and not just because of low volume requirements, but because of our ability to produce small technical features which are easy to produce in AM, but in the conventional manufacturing world this can be unjustifiable or economically impossible for the moulding market.

So as electronic packaging becomes more of a technical issue we will see more firms endorse 3D printing as manufacturing solution.

What is holding back 3D printing?

Poor understanding of the value of the technology to customers and the constant attempts to shoehorn the wrong technology to customers by some manufacturers. Another thing is the cost of materials. Often the process is disregarded as production solution because of high component costs , now the 3D Printers are becoming faster the largest cost element of the component is now the material.

What advice would you give a company interested in using 3D printing for manufacturing?

“Listen to your customers and suppliers more and deliver what they want not necessarily what you think he wants…”

The post Interview with Martin Forth of RAPLAS on Open Materials Manufacturing With 3D Printing appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing.

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Longer Orange 30 Affordable Resin LCD 3D Printer is Live on Kickstarter

Longer Orange 30 LCD Resin 3D printers are now available on Kickstarter. Super early birds can pledge for the printer at $199, while early birds can pledge for the printer at 50% off retail price.

Longer3d, based in Shenzhen, China, is a company specializing in additive manufacturing. Its product portfolio includes hobbyist desktop FDM (fused deposition modeling) printers and industrial metal machines for professional standards. Owning a factory gives Longer3d’s R&D staff the opportunity to repeatedly test the performance of its machines. To achieve mass production requires not only supply chain support for a product design, but also experienced factory operations to reduce non-performance rates through quality control processes.

As a new SLA resin 3D printer, the Orange 30 is an affordable proposition for professionals working in high-detail industries such as jewelry, dentistry, architecture, industrial design, model making and art.

Orange 30 uses LCD-based UV shielding technology; uniform UV LED array light source and special optical path design can achieve high contrast and uniform distribution of surface light source, avoiding debris during printing. This ensures that the print details are smooth.

Smart support is another feature of this printer. It can automatically detect the suspended parts with one button and automatically add cross-linked grid support to improve the success rate of complex model printing, which avoids the loss of support at critical times. Moreover, Longer provides professional-grade slicing software.

In terms of design, the Orange 30 features a sturdy, all-metal and one-piece design with a UV-resistant orange cover for high visibility. It offers a fairly large 120 x 68 x 170 mm build volume, which is larger than the equivalent on the market. And the 2.8-inch full-color touch screen provides users with instant feedback, making it easy to select files for printing and view the process.

The Orange 30 brings a other enhancements to the printing experience such as high temperature warning: Real-time detection of LED operating temperature during printing enables the printer to automatically pause or stop when temperature is abnormal, and automatically resume printing when the temperature normalizes.

Orange 30 offers a 2K LCD screen of 2560*1440, 47.25μm, and it offers superior detail compared to many other FDM printers.

Longer’s new line of resins complements its affordable 3D printer, with up to 6 colors of resin to choose from, making it easy to print a wide range of applications.

If you want to take advantage of the super early bird deal visit Kickstarter to learn more about the affordable and capable Orange 30.

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University of Toronto Researcher Tests Short Fiber Composites in SLA 3D Printing

3D printing is still relatively uncharted, and questions continue to abound regarding mechanical properties as we seek the most affordable, strong, and durable materials and parts. Now, researchers at the University of Toronto are investigating options with short fiber composites in SLA 3D printing. Their findings have been recently published in ‘Mechanical Analysis of Short Fiber Composites Manufactured by Inverted Stereolithography,’ authored by Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry thesis student Ignace (Joe) Brazda.

Brazda realizes that many 3D printed parts are not suitable for load-bearing applications due to a lack of strength in mechanical properties. To improve on this issue, he combined glass fibers with an acrylic resin for SLA printing. Brazda found success in increasing the elastic modulus, but challenges otherwise. He chose SLA 3D printing because there are so many benefits for making strong prototypes, despite other problems such as the amount of resin required to the fill the tank (with the build volume corresponding to the size of the tank), which can be cumbersome. Also inconvenient is the need to dump surrounding resin to get rid of partially cured material.

A conventional setup for a stereolithography system 1) Sweeper 2) Prototype 3) Resin 4)
Build Platform 5) Elevator 6) Resin Tank 7) Laser Beam 8) XY Mirror 9) Lenses 10) UV Laser

An ISLA system setup. 1) Prototype 2) Scaffolding and supports 3) Resin 4) Build platform 5) UV Laser 6) Mirror galvanometers 7) XY Scanning mirror 8) Transparent resin tank base 9) Resin tank

“To appeal to a greater number of consumers, an SLA machine with a small footprint and basic power voltage requirements is preferable,” states Brazda.

With inverted SLA, the system cures from the bottom. The parts are inverted on the build platform, and because there is no viscous resin, support structures must be printed so the sample does not shift. The Form 2 is a good example of an ISLA 3D printer allowing for smooth workflow.

Formlabs has developed a large material pipeline, with each resin having various colors, mechanical properties, and applications. While Rigid Resins does contain glass particles, the author states that it maintains isotropy while still limiting mechanical properties required.

“The Form 2 is not the only ISLA printer available,” states the author. “However, in comparison to other competitors (Nobel Series by XYZ Printing, Peopoly Moai, Asigo Pica 2), the Form 2 provides the highest XY resolution (140 µm) and is the only ISLA printer to include a wiping mechanism.”

In examining whether composites could be effective for SLA printing, the research focused on their intrinsic mechanical properties. Currently, these types of materials are used for creating parts in aeronautics, the medical field, sports, and more.

“The properties of a composite can be tailored to suit the applications,” states Brazda. “For example, fiberglass is a resin combined with glass fibers. Fiberglass will exhibit properties of both the fibers and the matrix resin. By varying the quantities of the constituents, the mechanical properties of the fiberglass can be tailored for a specific application. The orientation and length of the fibers also effect the mechanical behavior.”

Brazda chose short glass fibers for resin reinforcement with the Form 2 due to their high strength and modulus, along with their excellent capabilities for bonding. They are available in a range of sizes and can be coated by the user depending on adhesion requirements.

“Most importantly, the glass fibers will not interfere with the intensity of the UV laser,” states the author. “The laser is still able to pass through the fibers, allowing the surrounding resin to cure.”

Brazda’s goal was to create 3D printed samples with ‘superior mechanical qualities.’ He believes this type of research to be novel, with no previous attempts to use short glass fibers for such means. The samples were then analyzed regarding their performance in ISLA workflow. Flow of the fibers and print geometries were a focus.

While the fibers will able to be mixed into the resin tank successfully, Brazda discovered that flow gradients generally offered ‘non-ideal’ orientation of the fibers. This means that applications for such 3D prints could be limited:

“The resin accelerates towards the nearest boundary of the print, which will cause the fibers to align in the direction of the flow. This will generally be across the width a high aspect ratio member, and causes transverse fiber orientation, which will not significantly increase the elastic modulus of the specimen along the main axis of the member,” concluded Brazda.

“Future work with the ISLA should continue exploring flow induced orientation and conceptualizing new ideas to modify the movement of the resin. To obtain longitudinally aligned fibers, channel flow is desired. It is likely that using an ISLA printer with more open source capabilities is preferable.”

The topic of mechanical properties is a popular one, as researchers around the world consider how the benefits of 3D printing can be further integrated into manufacturing with materials like SLM 3D printed titanium, aluminum, and PLA. What do you think of this news? Let us know your thoughts! Join the discussion of this and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com.

Tensile testing setup of a short glass fiber reinforced composite

[Source / Images: Mechanical Analysis of Short Fiber Composites Manufactured by Inverted Stereolithography]