LET'S SPEAK 3D PRINTING!
Exploring the Types of 3D Printing
Whenever you discuss additive manufacturing, direct digital fabrication, rapid prototyping, or 3D printing, you're talking about the same process: translating a 3D design stored in a computer into a stack of thin layers and then manufacturing a real, physical object by creating those layers, one at a time, in a 3D printer. This chapter discusses most used applications of this technology.
The most common 3D printing types
MATERIAL TYPES
Let's start with so-called Cartesian printers and basic forms of additive manufacturing exploration.
To translate a 3D virtual model's design into the stack of layers that make up an object, all 3D printers require the unique coordinates of every element of the object to be fabricated.
Cartesian, which uses motors to move in the X, Y, and Z directions and Delta, which relies on mechanical linkages to three motors to move an extruder within the entire build volume. Even Delta-type 3D printers require X, Y, and Z coordinates into which they extrude the build material for the final object.
These Cartesian printers are designed to accommodate the properties of the materials from which they create objects. Later on, we will present the most common material types.
The first type of additive manufacturing was termed stereolithography by its inventor, Charles W. Hull. From the word stereolithography comes the standard 3D-printed object file type, STL, invented by Hull in the late 1980s.
Fused deposition modeling
(FDM) is an additive manufacturing (AM) technology commonly used for modeling, prototyping, and production applications. It is one of the techniques used for 3D printing. The technology was developed by S. Scott Crump in the late 1980s and was commercialized in 1990.
Stereolithographic (SLA) fabrication is often used for high-resolution object manufacturing, providing highly detailed surfaces. Let us show you the process:
FDM works on an "additive" principle by laying down material in layers; a plastic filament or metal wire is unwound from a coil and supplies material to produce a part. Thus, FDM is also known as a solid-based AM technology.
