California based Carbon3D has unveiled a technology which can grow objects from a a pool of resin instead of printing them layer-by-layer, harnessing light and oxygen.
The company uses its innovative Continuous Liquid Interface Production technology (CLIP), which can create objects 25-100 times faster than conventional 3D printing.
Carbon3D CEO and co-founder Dr. Joseph DeSimone said, "Current 3D printing technology has failed to deliver on its promise to revolutionise manufacturing.
"Our CLIP technology offers the game-changing speed, consistent mechanical properties and choice of materials required for complex commercial quality parts."
The company claimed that the conventional 3D printing method uses layer method and it involves ‘just 2D printing, over and over again’.
Dr. Joseph also added that the structures made through the conventional process are mechanically weak due to their shale-like layers and can take longer timer to create which could take ‘hours, even days’, to produce.
While the objects made through CLIP technology claimed to have consistent mechanical properties and will have broad range of polymeric materials.
Carbon3D’s CLIP technology can rapidly transform 3D models into physical objects by balancing the interaction of UV light, which triggers photo polymerisation, and oxygen, which prevents the reaction.
CLIP technology has a special window which is transparent to light and permeable to oxygen, similar to contact lens.
Carbon3D board member and managing director at Silver Lake Kraftwerk Adam Grosser said, "We had studied the additive manufacturing ecosystem comprehensively and had concluded that the promise far exceeded the current reality in the marketplace.
"When we witnessed the CLIP process, we believed we had found a company that had invented a solution to speed, quality, and material selection. We are proud to work alongside Carbon3D to create a new category of 3D manufacturing."