Landscaper: A Modeling System for 3D Printing Scale Models of Landscapes

Landscape models of geospatial regions provide an intuitive mechanism for exploring complex geospatial information. However, the methods currently used to create these scale models require a large amount of resources, which restricts the availability of these models to a limited number of popular public places, such as museums and airports. In this paper, we have proposed a system for creating these physical models using an affordable 3D printer in order to make the creation of these models more widely accessible. Our system retrieves GIS relevant to creating a physical model of a geospatial region and then addresses the two major limitations of affordable 3D printers, namely the limited number of materials and available printing volume. This is accomplished by separating features into distinct extruded layers and splitting large models into smaller pieces, allowing us to employ different methods for the visualization of different geospatial features, like vegetation and residential areas, in a 3D printing context. We confirm the functionality of our system by printing two large physical models of relatively complex landscape regions.

A study of tensile and bending properties of 3D-printed biocompatible materials used in dental appliances

In the last years, a large number of new biocompatible materials for 3D printers have emerged. Due to their recent appearance and rapid growth, there is little information about their mechanical properties. The design and manufacturing of oral appliances made with 3D printing technologies require knowledge of the mechanical properties of the biocompatible material used to achieve optimal performance for each application. This paper focuses on analysing the mechanical behaviour of a wide range of biocompatible materials using different additive manufacturing technologies. To this end, tensile and bending tests on different types of recent biocompatible materials used with 3D printers were conducted to evaluate the influence of the material, 3D printing technology, and printing orientation on the fragile/ductile behaviour of the manufactured devices. A test bench was used to perform tensile tests according to ASTM D638 and bending tests according to ISO 178. The specimens were manufactured with nine different materials and five manufacturing technologies. Furthermore, specimens were created with different printing technologies, biocompatible materials, and printing orientations. The maximum allowable stress, rupture stress, flexural modulus, and deformation in each of the tested specimens were recorded. Results suggest that specimens manufactured with Stereolithography (SLA) and milling (polymethyl methacrylate PMMA) achieved high maximum allowable and rupture stress values. It was also observed that Polyjet printing and Selective Laser Sintering technologies led to load–displacement curves with low maximum stress and high deformation values. Specimens manufactured with Digital Light Processing technology showed intermediate and homogeneous performance. Finally, it was observed that the printing direction significantly influences the mechanical properties of the manufactured specimens in some cases.

Evaluation of Stereolithography-Based Additive Manufacturing Technology for BaTiO3 Ceramics at 465 nm

A piezoceramic BaTiO3 material that is difficult for 3D printing was tested with a homemade laser-based stereolithography (SLA) setup. The high light absorbance of BaTiO3 in the spectral range of 350–410 nm makes this material hardly usable with most commercial SLA 3D printers. The typical polymerization depth of BaTiO3 ceramic pastes in this spectral range hardly reaches 30–50 µm for 40 vol % powder loading. A spectral change to 465 nm was realized in this work via a robot-based experimental SLA setup to improve the 3D printing efficiency. The ceramic paste was prepared from a preconditioned commercial BaTiO3 powder and used for 3D printing. The paste’s polymerization was investigated with variation of powder fraction (10–55 vol %), speed of a laser beam (1–10 mm/s, at constant laser power), and a hatching spacing (100–1000 µm). The polymerization depths of over 100 µm were routinely reached with the 465 nm SLA for pastes having 55 vol % powder loading. The spectral shift from 350–410 nm spectral region to 465 nm reduced the light absorption by BaTiO3 and remedied the photopolymerization process, emphasizing the importance of comprehensive optical analysis of prospective powders in SLA technology. Two multi-layered objects were 3D-printed to demonstrate the positive effect of the spectral shift.

Vibration Suppression of a Fast Filament Fabrication 3d Printer via Resonance Compensation

Additive manufacturing systems especially 3d printers are made by rigid links which provide sufficient stiffness to give motion to 3d printing head system which are moving at very high speed &acceleration. It has been found out that high-speed manipulators generate vibration problem and 3dprinting head is one of them which encounter significant vibration at high speed and acceleration. Therefore, evolution in mathematical control system is necessary for effective vibration suppression and to allow fast motion of 3d printing head at high speed and acceleration. In this paper we develop experiment where we measure the resonance frequency of our bed swinging 3d printer and with graph we optimized it with mathematical system which allows printer to run 140% faster speed and over 600% higher acceleration with same quality and precision. Keyword: 1. Additive Manufacturing, 2. Complex system development, 3. Mechatronics, 4. Robotics, 5. Physics. 6. Advanced engineering mathematics 7. High speed manipulators.

MTouch: An Automatic Fault Detection System for Desktop FFF 3D Printers Using a Contact Sensor

Desktop fused filament fabrication (FFF) 3D printers have been growing in popularity among hobbyist and professional users as a prototyping and low-volume manufacturing tool. One issue these printers face is the inability to determine when a defect has occurred rendering the print unusable. Several techniques have been proposed to detect such defects but many of these approaches are tailored to one specific fault (e.g., filament runout/jam), use expensive hardware such as laser distance sensors, and/or use machine vision algorithms which are sensitive to ambient conditions, and hence can be unreliable. This paper proposes a versatile, reliable, and low-cost system, named MTouch, to detect millimeter-scale defects that tend to make prints unusable. At the core of MTouch is an actuated contact probe designed using a low-power solenoid, magnet, and hall effect sensor. This sensor is used to check for the presence, or absence, of the printed object at specific locations. The MTouch probe demonstrated 100% reliability, which was significantly higher than the 74% reliability achieved using a commercially available contact probe (the BLTouch). Additionally, an algorithm was developed to automatically detect common print failures such as layer shifting, bed separation, and filament runout using the MTouch probe. The algorithm was implemented on a Raspberry Pi mini-computer via an Octoprint plug-in. In head-to-head testing against a commercially available print defect detection system (The Spaghetti Detective), the MTouch was able to detect faults 44% faster on average while only increasing the print time by 8.49%. In addition, MTouch was able to detect faults The Spaghetti Detective was unable to identify such as layer shifting and filament runout/jam.

ModElec

Integrating electronics with highly custom 3D designs for the physical fabrication of interactive prototypes is traditionally cumbersome and requires numerous iterations of manual assembly and debugging. With the new capabilities of 3D printers, combining electronic design and 3D modeling workflows can lower the barrier for achieving interactive functionality or iterating on the overall design. We present ModElec---an interactive design tool that enables the coordinated expression of electronic and physical design intent by allowing designers to integrate 3D-printable circuits with 3D forms. With ModElec, the user can arrange electronic parts in a 3D body, modify the model design with embedded circuits updated, and preview the auto-generated 3D traces that can be directly printed with a multi-material-based 3D printer. We demonstrate the potential of ModElec with four example applications, from a set of game controls to reconfigurable devices. Further, the tool was reported as easy to use through a preliminary evaluation with eight designers.

Additive Manufactured Waveguide for E-Band Using Ceramic Materials

Ceramic materials are chemical- and temperature-resistant and, therefore, enable novel application fields ranging from automotive to aerospace. With this in mind, this contribution focuses on developing an additive manufacturing approach for 3D-printed waveguides made of ceramic materials. In particular, a special design approach for ceramic waveguides, which introduces non-radiating slots into the waveguides sidewalls, and a customized metallization process, are presented. The developed process allows for using conventional stereolithographic desktop-grade 3D-printers. The proposed approach has, therefore, benefits such as low-cost fabrication, moderate handling effort and independence of the concrete waveguide geometry. The performance of a manufactured ceramic WR12 waveguide is compared to a commercial waveguide and a conventionally printed counterpart. For that reason, relevant properties, such as surface roughness and waveguide geometry, are characterized. Parsing the electrical measurements, the ceramic waveguide specimen features an attenuation coefficient of 30–60 dB/m within the E-Band. The measured attenuation coefficient is 200% and 300% higher compared to the epoxy resin and the commercial waveguide and is attributed to the increased surface roughness of the ceramic substrate.

Thionolactone as Resin Additive to Prepare (bio)degradable 3D Objects via VAT Photopolymerization

3D printing and especially VAT photopolymerization leads to cross-linked materials with high thermal, chemical and mechanical properties. Nevertheless, such stability is incompatible with degradability and re/upcyclability. We showed here that thionolactone and especially dibenzo[c,e]-oxepane-5-thione (DOT) could be used as an additive (2 wt%) to acrylate-based resins to introduce weak bonds into the network via a radical ring-opening polymerization process. The low amount of additive allows to only slightly modify the printability of the resin, keep intact its resolution and maintain the mechanical properties of the 3D object. The resin with additive was used in UV microfabrication and 2-photon stereolithography setup and commercial 3D printers. The fabricated objects were shown to degrade in basic solvent as well in a home-made compost. The rate of degradation is nonetheless dependent of the size of the object. This feature was used to prepare 3D objects with support structures that could be easily solubilized.

Recent Patents on Mechanical Structure of 3D Printer

Background: 3D printing technology is widely applied in transportation, industrial equipment, medical, aerospace, and civil industry due to its characteristics of material saving, no model manufacturing, and machinability of complex parts. The mechanical structure of 3D printer mainly includes 3D printer head structure and working platform and plays a major role in the machining efficiency and processing accuracy of the 3D printer. Thus, increasingly attention has been paid to the current trends of the mechanical structure of 3D printers. Objective: To meet the increasing requirements of 3D printing processing efficiency and precision, the mechanical structure of 3D printers, such as 3D print head structure and working platform, needs to be carefully studied, and a feasible mechanical structure of 3D printers should be proposed. Methods: This paper studies various representative patent related to the mechanical structure of 3D printer, analyzes the mechanical structure of 3D printer, and studies the perfect mechanical structure of 3D printer. Results: Through summarizing a lot of patents about the mechanical structure of 3D printers, the main current existing problems such as platform jitter and machining error are summarized and analyzed, a new mechanical structure of 3D printers is proposed. Moreover, the development tendency of the mechanical structure of 3D printers in the future is discussed. Conclusion: The optimization of the mechanical structure of 3D printer is conducive to increasing the machining efficiency and processing accuracy in the 3D printing process. More relevant patents about working platform and 3D printer head will be invented in the future

Digital Workflow for Homemade Aligner

Advanced digital technology is rapidly changing the world, as well as transforming the dental profession. The adoption of digital technologies in dental offices allied with efficient processes and accurate high-strength materials are replacing conventional aligners workflows to improve overall patients’ experiences and outcomes. Various digital devices such as 3D printers, intraoral and face scanners, cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT), software for computer 3D ortho setup, and 3D printing provide new potential alternatives to replace the traditional outsourced workflow for aligners. With this new technology, the entire process for bringing clear aligner production in-office can significantly reduce laboratory bills and increase patient case acceptance to provide high-quality and customized aligner therapy.