new advances in rapid prototyping using inkjet-based 3d ......rapid prototyping techniques have...
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DISCLAIMER: Objet Geometries Ltd. ("Objet") does not guarantee the final release and availability of materials, products and/or
features referred to herein. Materials will be released subject to Objet’s sole discretion. Not all released materials are currently
available for all platforms/systems. Objet will update its website further to releases become available and/or compatible with
specific platforms/systems.
April 2011 Objet Geometries Ltd.
New Advances in Rapid Prototyping using Inkjet-based 3D Printing
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Bringing Prototyping to the Modern Era
Rapid prototyping techniques have found their place in a range of industries such as
consumer goods and electronics, automotive, defense, education, motor sports,
jewelry, dentistry, orthodontics, medicine, and more. Today it is enabling both large
and small companies to simulate complex parts and finished assemblies straight
from the printer ‐ quickly and more accurately than ever before.
Workshop lathes, boring machines, planning and slotting and shaping machines – all
essential capital equipment for mass production were all invented in the 1800’s.
Since the days of the industrial revolution, manufacturers have, until now, never
succeeded in replicating and transferring the cost‐efficiency of mass production to
the prototyping process.
Prototyping has remained a major Achilles heel for designers and manufacturing
companies due to its inability to conform to the economies of scale principle:
Architects pay students to painstakingly build and glue cardboard models of their
buildings; car manufacturers hire teams to build heavy wood and clay models of
their next generation of vehicles; dental labs use bite impressions to design veneers,
crowns and orthodontic appliances, and so on.
Prototyping has therefore traditionally been slow, tedious, expensive, difficult to
repeat, and in some cases, inadequate for the task of simulating the end products
they are built to represent.
When once it might have taken days, weeks or months to produce prototypes, using
3D printing technologies, the same work can now be achieved in hours. Businesses
who want to streamline their efficiency and become more productive can now use
3D printing technology to deliver fast turnaround from initial design to final
production of goods.
Answering the Requirements of Form, Fit and
Function
Along with speed, accuracy and repeatability, 3D printing provides the massive
advantage of producing realistic representations that can be properly tested and
checked for design faults early on in the design cycle. Once a design fault is identified
in the model, designers and engineers can simply tweak the design on the CAD/CAM
program and print and test again, as many times as they like, until the design is
perfected and meets their precise visualization and verification requirements.
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ese
Whereas fulfilling the fit and form requirements of rapid prototyping has always
been dependent upon the type of 3D printing technology used, the functional
requirements are naturally more dependent upon the properties of the materials
being laid down by the 3D printing machine.
Fit and Form Testing: Accuracy and Resolution
According to industry reports, companies today use 55% of their additive
manufacturing processes today for fit and form testing. Fit and form requires an
accurate look and feel, so designers, marketers and focus groups can accurately
visualize their intended product. So what sort of 3D printing technologies is best
suited to simulating fit and form?
Inkjet‐based 3D Printing
Technology
A cursory Google search for “Rapid
Manufacturing Technologies” will
display many competing companies.
The main differences between th
‘additive manufacturing’ technologies
are found in the way layers are built to
create parts. Some involve melting or softening materials, others by binding
powdered material, while others involve jetting or selectively laser‐hardening liquid
materials.
Objet Geometries has over 110 registered patents and pending applications in inkjet‐
based 3D printing technology and a range of over 60 UV‐curable liquid
photopolymer acrylic‐based materials. These materials are used on specialized 3D
printing machines fitted with inkjet heads conceptually similar to regular printers.
Providing high‐resolution, detailed parts, and the ability to print finished model
assemblies straight from the machine, inkjet‐based 3D printing promises designers
and engineers the ability to accurately simulate the fit and form of the products they
aim to produce, and with the provision of a new range of materials that closely
simulate engineering plastics; realistic function testing now comes into play as well.
Smooth surfaces ‐ Perhaps more than any other technology, inkjet based 3D
printing has the ability to produce precisely built‐parts based on a layer‐
thickness of 16 microns. A closer look at the structure of walls will show that
layers are highly integrated, with no ‘log‐building’ effect that is typical of
many of the melted‐material deposition (also known as Fused Deposition
Molding) 3D printing.
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Choice of gloss or matt finish ‐
Inkjet printing also produces
parts with smooth surfaces,
with a choice of either matt or
gloss finish straight from the
printer. This is not commonly
found in other 3D printing
technologies.
Minimal post‐processing ‐
Apart from the advantage of using only what you need, jetting the material
onto a build tray rather than using Stereo‐lithography techniques which cures
or hardens a selected area within a full vat of liquid resin, means you can jet
different materials from the different nozzles of the inkjet head. This has two
major advantages over Stereo‐lithography with regard to fit and form testing:
1. Objet inkjet technology has multi‐material capability – Due to the use
of inkjet nozzles that can spray different materials –parts can be made
of multiple materials or even mixed, composite materials, providing
designers the unique ability to simulate complex parts that include
both rigid and flexible elements within the same model. An example
would be a remote control with hard surfaces and soft, rubber‐like
buttons and over‐molding grips, essential for simulating the precise
look and feel of an end product.
2. Inkjet can use a water‐removable support material – Stereo‐
lithography uses the same material for both models and support. This
support hardens along with model and must therefore be broken off
by hand – often leaving flashings and protrusions on the surface that
need to be fettled, filed or sanded down in post‐process.
This last point will have a direct bearing on the ability to simulate engineering
plastics in the next section.
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New Developments: More Dimensional
Stability and Visualization
With the release of a new range of materials, Objet Geometries has now further
enhanced its fit and form capabilities by providing enhanced dimensional stability
and clear transparent properties.
Higher Dimensional Stability
Objet has now released the new Objet
VeroWhitePlus – a material providing high
dimensional stability (the ability to maintain its
original dimensions when subjected to changes
in temperature and humidity). This is an
essential characteristic for fit and form testing,
since if a model’s dimensions are distorted even
slightly, then fitting precise parts together
becomes more difficult or even impossible.
Transparency & High Dimensional Stability
Objet’s newly released Objet VeroClear material produces prototypes with similar
visual properties to PMMA, a common glass
substitute used when light weight and
resistance to shattering is important and where
the index of refraction and light transmission
qualities are required to be comparable to
regular glass. Common applications for this
material include lighting covers and cases and
glass‐like elements in consumer goods,
consumer electronics and cosmetics packaging.
Answering the Requirements for Function:
Engineering Plastics Simulation
Functional testing is an essential requirement for the rapid prototyping process and
in many cases requires the simulation of engineering plastics. A major player within
this market is Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene, or ABS by its commonly known
acronym.
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with
roGray material.
Why ABS? ‐ In terms of price‐performance, ABS represents an important benchmark
for 3D printing due to its ability to combine the strength, rigidity and surface quality
of acrylonitrile and styrene polymers, the toughness of polybutadiene rubber, but
with the lower price‐point associated with standard plastics.
The list of applications for ABS is long and still growing. Its light weight and ability to
be injection molded and extruded make it extremely useful in a wide range of
manufacturing products including automotive trim components, enclosures for
electrical and electronic assemblies, protective surfaces, home appliances and toys.
ABS‐Like Toughness
Objet’s new ABS‐like Digital Material
(RGD5160‐DM) has a temperature
resistance of 65° C out of printer, 90° C
post‐thermal treatment and a high
toughness of 65‐80 J/m. This is comparable
to standard ABS and three times the
toughness of the Objet Ve
This uniquely tough and light photopolymer
material is actually a composite ‘digital
material’ – created by jetting two different materials simultaneously – both a high
temperature material and high toughness material.
This is a capability unique to inkjet‐based 3D printing, and the Objet Connex Multi‐
Material 3D printer in particular, and cannot be replicated by any other 3D printing
technology currently available. Using this technique, manufacturers can utilize the
high accuracy and resolution of inkjet for fit and form testing, and also the
engineering plastic quality for functional testing. The Objet ABS‐like Digital Material
can be used to:
Simulate snap‐fit parts ‐ including models and prototypes with moving parts
and compositions.
Simulate living hinges ‐ that go through repeated flexing and bending such as
clips and fasteners.
Endure high stress usage ‐ such as falls and blows or high pressure.
Withstand outdoor environments ‐ where hot and cold weather would
typically cause material deformation.
Simulate contact surfaces ‐ such as knives, scissors and other cutting
surfaces.
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High Temperature Resistance
To produce parts combining high surface
quality, fine details and 80°C resistance is
not easy to achieve by any prototyping
standards.
Objet’s new High Temperature material
(RGD525) combines high surface quality
with a heat resistance of 65° C out of the
printer and 80° C after a short oven‐
based post‐thermal treatment.
Light testing ‐ The primary applications for this material are thermal testing
of static parts. This can include light testing under prolonged strong lighting –
such as is required for various automotive and heavy industry design
projects.
Hot water and hot air flow testing ‐ Another application involves running hot
water through a tap at 65°C – a process that typically requires hours of
testing. The main advantage of inkjet‐based 3D printing for hot water testing
is clear. Whereas before, customers would have to produce an actual
production part – very much at the end of the design process, this is no
longer the case. A tap can be tested straight out the printer – and still mimic
the precise look and function of a tap – without any of the log‐building effect
typical with Fused Deposition Modeling‐style 3D printing.
Metalizing, painting, gluing ‐
Objet’s High Temperature
material is also ideal for
painting, gluing and metalizing,
which all require highly smooth
surfaces. Post processing of this
sort with Objet’s High
Temperature material is rapidly
and easily achieved, without the
filing down or fettling of
unwanted protrusions that may be typical of other methods such as Stereo‐
lithography.
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form
testing.
nd
eposition Modeling and Stereo‐
lithography in the fit and form departments.
ing
als used in both Fused Deposition Modeling and Stereo‐
lithography 3D printing.
g
ng the way, providing the demanded levels of print quality and material
properties.
d
nd at the end of the
day, a better end‐product, more quickly delivered to market.
Summary
One of the biggest challenges of 3D
printing today is how to achieve all‐
round high scores for fit, form and
functional testing.
As shown, only inkjet‐based 3D
printing technology currently has the
ability to produce the fine detail
printing, ultra‐thin layers, smooth
surfaces, high dimensional stability and clear transparency required for fit and
In addition, Objet’s unique ability to print multiple materials, conveys a clear a
significant competitive lead over both Fused D
With a new range of high‐temperature and ABS‐like materials, Objet’s inkjet based
3D printing technology now fills much of the remaining functional gap by provid
an ABS‐level standard of engineering plastics simulation for functional testing,
comparable to the materi
The 3D world in the coming years will move to increasingly resemble the 2D printin
world. The next step in the evolution of 3D printing will see more and more rapid
prototyping tasks for form, fit and function testing performed at the design and
engineering office and desktop levels. There again, inkjet‐based 3D printing led by
Objet is pavi
With such a technology at their fingertips, product designers and engineers can now
make light work of prototyping cycles that used to take weeks or even months an
that fared poorly in real‐world representation. With inkjet‐based 3D printing the
result is a more instructive and efficient prototyping process a
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