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Resins for additive manufacturers to produce UV-curable 3D printing pastes for applications such as medical, dental, electronics and sporting goods.
The way potters and hobbyists traditionally pack electric kilns is the height of energy wastage. This 18x22 hexagonal kiln load of bowls is a good example. A traditional pack on the left does 24. The new method using 3D printed setters on the right does 36. The left firing contains only 5.3 kg of bowls with more than 60kg of furniture - each 220g bowl incurs 2700g (6 lb) of kiln furniture weight - seven times as much! This type of packing also leads to uneven firing and puts a heavy load on the electrical components. The bigger the kiln the greater the efficiency.
These light-weight stackable setters don't exist yet. But they soon will. I designed specifically for this bowl and printed samples using PLA. Sintered alumina, the ultimate material, has 3x density over PLA - so we can predict the weight at 160g. These setters allow free flow of air, even the foot of the bowl is exposed. They can be printed upside down with one pass of the nozzle for most of the geometry.
New uV hardened resins for dental applications are the inspiration for this idea. These resins and hardeners are commodity items online now, anyone with a clay 3D printer (or the ability to retrofit an existing PLA printer) can experiment with recipes (even of inexpensive refractory materials like kaolin, ball clay silica) and print these.
URLs |
https://www.prodways.com/
Prodways, from France, MOVINGLight® DLP technology ceramic 3D printers They claim high precision for prototyping and making molds and casts (e.g. investment casting). Machines are designed to work seamlessly with SILICA SICAST 1200 and ALUMINA A100 resins from SINTX Technologies |
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uV Curing Resins
uV curing resins have great promise as a medium in which clay can be 3D printed (in both SLA and FDM printers). Recent advances are claiming 80% or more solids loading. |
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