| Abstract Scope |
Photopolymer 3D printing methods, such as stereolithography (SLA), digital light processing (DLP), and inkjet 3D printing, suffer from various limitations, such as the need of a resin tank and postprocessing, or high equipment cost. This paper introduces a novel extrusion-based method for direct deposition photopolymer printing (DDPP) that resembles fused deposition modeling (FDM), one of the most widely used 3D printing methods. The proposed DDPP method uses a gear pump to continuously extrude photopolymer resin and instantly cure the photopolymer while printing. Specifically, we have addressed the challenges associated with the system reliability issues, such as dripping, spreading, and shrinkage, via a systematic design of curing mechanism, synchronizing control, and slicing under various resin material scenarios. The performance of the developed DDPP system is experimentally evaluated, which shows promise as an easy and low-cost alternative for printing photopolymers. |