A new 3D printing technology capable of rapidly producing intricate three-dimensional microstructures every 60 seconds has been developed in South Korea.
The Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) said Wednesday that a research team led by Professor Chung Im-doo of the Department of Mechanical Engineering has developed a "dispensing volumetric additive manufacturing" (DVAM) technology that enables 3D printing by volume rather than layer-by-layer, while also allowing continuous production.
The newly developed 3D printing technology works by shining light on a droplet of liquid resin suspended at the tip of a pipette, curing it into the desired shape. The liquid droplet itself serves as a printing vessel. Once the shape is fully cured, air pressure pushes the droplet out of the pipette, immediately creating a new droplet.
"We developed the DVAM technology, in which printing and discharge occur within a single resin droplet dispensed from a glass pipette," the research team explained. "As soon as the cured structure is discharged onto the substrate, the next droplet is supplied, enabling high-speed continuous production."
Existing volumetric 3D printing technologies such as computed axial lithography (CAL) have faced limitations in continuous mass production due to the difficulty of the process.
Unlike conventional 3D printing technologies that build objects layer by layer, the new method can create the entire volume of a shape at once, significantly reducing production time.
The biggest challenge in the research — the refraction of light at the surface of the liquid droplet — was solved using artificial intelligence (AI). A deep learning-based AI recognizes the curvature of the droplet in real time, and through inverse ray tracing technology, projects a pattern that has been mathematically corrected in advance for light distortion.
With this technology, producing 10 complex structures such as the "Eiffel Tower" or "The Thinker" in different shapes takes less than 10 minutes. Each piece takes about 60 seconds to make, which is more than 100 times faster than conventional methods. The researchers noted that no additional post-processing is required because no layer patterns remain.
"Unlike conventional 3D printing principles, we cure the entire shape by volume at once, and continuously dispense without any additional process, improving 3D printing speed by more than 100 times," said Jeon Hong-ryeong, the first author of the study. "We have shown the potential to mass-produce three-dimensional micro-components of different shapes at rapid speed."
Professor Chung Im-doo, the corresponding author who led the research, said, "Slow manufacturing speed has always been cited as a drawback of 3D printing technology, which enables customized manufacturing. This case elevates the possibility of ultra-high-speed 3D printing by moving away from conventional photocuring methods to produce the entire volume at once, while solving the optical distortion limitations that arise using AI technology." He added, "We have now entered an era where we no longer need to wait a long time to manufacture a desired shape — we can create it on the spot within tens of seconds."
The research findings were published online on the 21st of last month in Advanced Functional Materials, a leading international journal in the field of materials science.
