Preliminary study on volumetric 3D printing using visible light

The realm of 3D printing has been a valuable aspect of manufacturing and mechanical engineering to which complex geometries have been made that might be otherwise highly costly or not feasible by other manufacturing methods. This is where volumetric 3D printing has been advantageous by generating complex geometry with no defects on the surface. The problem with the research done so far is that the material used uses photoinitiators that photo-synthesize using ultraviolet (UV) light. The problem with this material is that it is attached to the destructive issues brought on by interacting with UV light, making some additives useless. To solve part of this problem, a solution to the material problem must be shown that a resin can be cured using visible light. This study has investigated the feasibility of a novel manufacturing process termed, the visible light-induced-volumetric 3D printing (VLI-V3DP) process that resulted in successfully finding resin that can be cured using visible light in the 470 and 530 nm range. By curing simple geometry using visible light, one can formulate a resin that can sustain just about any additives that can meet any goal, whether it is organic or not.

Automated summary

The realm of 3D printing has revolutionized manufacturing and mechanical engineering by enabling the production of complex geometries that would otherwise be costly or impractical. Volumetric 3D printing has emerged as a solution to generate flawless complex geometries. However, the current research faces the challenge of using materials that are affected by the destructive nature of UV light, rendering certain additives useless. This study proposes a novel manufacturing process called visible light-induced-volumetric 3D printing (VLI-V3DP) that successfully identifies a resin that can be cured using visible light, thus allowing for the incorporation of various additives to meet specific requirements.