Prusa I3 Based Ultrasonic Laser Resin 3D Printer

Team of scientists hacked a Prusa I3 to develop new 3d printing process that uses laser to solidify ultrasound arranged resin fiber particle in a small vat.
A laser diode module was mounted on the print head to cure the resin, with an emitting power of 50 mW. The laser diode was housed in a shroud, and was focused using a single 6 mm diameter lens, with a focal length of 20 mm. The small vat sized at 35mmx35mm was filled with low viscosity photocurable resin (Spot-A LV) and commercially sourced glass microfibres (Lanxess MF7904, length 50 μm, 14 μm). Ultrasonic transducer gives resin floating fiber the shape and laser solidifies it.
It is a new form of stereolithography which could see some upscaling into more capable machines.





Detailed article and scientific paper "3D printed components with ultrasonically arranged microscale structure" can be found at:

http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0964-1726/25/2/02LT01

Source post:

http://www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2016/january/3d-printer.html

The printed object and close-up of the object showing its very small layers.