The developers say that this is a totally new method of 3D printing. Their innovation allows objects to built from a fluid media consistently, intead of being manufactured one layer after another, like it has been done till now.
Joseph M DeSimone, professor of chemistry at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and CEO of Carbon3D said “By rethinking the whole approach to 3D printing, and the chemistry and physics behind the process, we have developed a new technology that can create parts radically faster than traditional technologies by essentially ‘growing’ them in a pool of liquid.”
The technology, dubbed Continuous Liquid Interface Production (CLIP) relies on light and oxygen to make items in fluid media, being the first 3D printing process that employs tunable photochemistry rather than the convanetional layering method of 3D printing.
CLIP places a pool of resin over a digital light projection system. A special window between the resin and light allows both light and oxygen to travel through (much like a contact lens). To create an object, CLIP projects specific bursts of light and oxygen. Light hardens the resin, and oxygen keeps it from hardening. By controlling light and oxygen exposure in tandem, intricate shapes and latices can be made in one piece instead of the many layers of material that usually make up a 3D printed object.
CLIP allows for an extensive variety of materials to be employed to make 3D sections with new properties, including elastomers, silicones, nylon-like materials, pottery and biodegradable compounds.