Development of a multi-material stereolithography 3D printing device

Additive manufacturing, or nowadays more popularly entitled as 3D printing, enables a fast realization of polymer, metal, ceramic or composite devices, which often cannot be fabricated with conventional methods. One critical issue for a continuation of this success story is the generation of multi-m...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Bilal Khatri, Marco Frey, Ahmed Raouf-Fahmy, Marc-Vincent Scharla, Thomas Hanemann
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2020-05-01
Series:Micromachines
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2072-666X/11/5/532
Description
Summary:Additive manufacturing, or nowadays more popularly entitled as 3D printing, enables a fast realization of polymer, metal, ceramic or composite devices, which often cannot be fabricated with conventional methods. One critical issue for a continuation of this success story is the generation of multi-material devices. Whilst in fused filament fabrication or 3D InkJet printing, commercial solutions have been realized, in stereolithography only very few attempts have been seen. In this work, a comprehensive approach, covering the construction, material development, software control and multi-material printing is presented for the fabrication of structural details in the micrometer range. The work concludes with a critical evaluation and possible improvements.
ISSN:2072-666X