Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
Two families of printers
I generally explain to people that there are two major families of 3D print-
ing technologies. The irst family of printers deposits layers of raw material
to make things. The second family of printers binds raw materials to make
things.
The irst family—let's call them “selective deposition printers”—deposits
raw material into layers. This class of printers squirts, sprays, or squeezes
liquid, paste, or powdered raw material through some kind syringe or nozzle.
3D printers used in people's homes and ofices are usually of the deposition
type because lasers or industrial-grade heat guns can be too fragile and
dangerous.
The second family of printers that binds (does not lay down or deposit) raw
material typically trains a laser or adhesive onto some sort of raw material.
This class of printers—called “selective binding printers”—use heat or light
to solidify powder or a light sensitive photopolymer. If you remember the bold
claims of the Cubital salesman, he told my classmates and me that he had made
his demo on a machine that “printed” it out using a laser.
Printers that squirt, squeeze, or spray
Let's irst explore selective deposition printers that deposit some kind of raw
material through a print head or nozzle. The raw material for printing might be
soft plastic that will harden once it hits the print bed, raw cookie dough, or even
living cells in special medical gel. If you've seen a consumer-style 3D printer in
the media, such as MakerBot, you've probably seen this type of printer.
The formal, technical name for the printing technique used by this category
of printer is “fused deposition modeling,” or FDM. FDM printers were invented
in the 1980s by Scott Crump who then built a company on the technology. If
you see a machine described as an “FDM printer,” that means it squeezes out
some kind of soft raw material through a print head.
This type of 3D printing process begins several steps before the print head
kicks into action. The irst step is to ind a software design ile that will tell
the 3D printer's built-in software (also known as “irmware”) what it needs
to print. Once the design ile is ready, users attach their laptop to the printer
and save the design ile into a special ile format that the 3D printer's built-in
irmware can read and work with (we'll explain the details of this conversion
process later).
