Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
Industrial Materials
and Methods
9
A materials guide for 3D printing services.
W
RITTEN
BY
S
TUART
D
EUTSCH
There has never been a better time to pur-
chase a desktop 3D printer. Nonetheless,
they are still too expensive for many users. If
you can't justify the cost of a personal printer,
you may be able to access one at a local
hackerspace, and there are many online 3D
printing services to choose from, including
Ponoko, Shapeways, and i.materialise. These
companies use a variety of printing technol-
ogies to create physical objects from your
digital designs and can print in many other
materials besides extruded thermoplastic.
Figure 9-1.
Bowie the Bunny in fine mineral power,
with color binders, via power bed/inkjet process
Composites and Ceramics
The powder bed/inkjet system can also be
used to create food-safe ceramic models
(
Figure 9-2
). The use of ceramic powder has
become quite popular with online printers
who now offer a rainbow of single-color op-
tions. After removal from the powder bed,
raw ceramic parts undergo a series of heat
treatments to dry, fire, and glaze the model,
improving both strength and appearance.
Powder bed and inkjet printers use inkjet-
type print heads to deposit tiny droplets of
liquid binder on top of a thin layer of powder.
Once the build platform lowers, a roller
spreads and compacts a fresh layer of pow-
der across the surface. The final object is es-
sentially a stack of powder layers finely glued
together. Dyed binders can be used in cer-
tain machines to produce full-color display
models (
Figure 9-1
). Treatment with super
glue and UV protectants can improve model
strength and reduce color fading.
