how to configure ember for high speed 3d printing

One of the main advantages of 3D printing is that it can be used to make parts that cannot be made using any other technology, giving designers a lot of freedom and allowing them to produce highly optimized parts.
A typical example is a pillar optimized for the minimum weight while maintaining sufficient strength.
Despite this advantage, one of the factors hindering the application of 3D printing in the manufacturing industry is speed.
Output of today\'s 3D printer (
All technologies)
It is much slower than other manufacturing processes such as CNC milling, injection molding or forging.
Therefore, the cost of making 3D printed parts is prohibitive and often exceeds any benefit of optimizing the parts (
There are some exceptions, such as the dental and hearing aid industry, where the 3D printer replaces manual labor, resulting in significant cost savings).
If the speed of 3D printing is improved, then it can be transformed into a viable manufacturing technology and create a lot of opportunities.
In this structure, we will look at how to improve the speed of digital optical processing of stereo printing (DLP SLA)
3D printers, specifically Autodesk Ember 3D printers.
The technology we describe here applies to the entire category of dlp sla printers and can be replicated on many different systems.
The Ember printer is open, which means it can be easily used to explore the limitations of dlp sla 3D printing.
By optimizing printer settings, software, and materials (
No hardware changes)
For a specific category of geometry, the standard printing speed of Ember can be increased from 18mm/hour to 440mm/hour, up 24 times.
So why is this important and why is Autodesk doing this research as a software company?
This study is the first step in achieving high-speed 3D printing in a production environment.
There are unique design rules for high
Speed dlp sla beyond current generation design software capabilities.
Through research in this area, our goal is to push forward the additive manufacturing industry by developing a connected ecosystem that can provide designers and manufacturers with the software they need
We also want to demonstrate the power of an open technology approach.
If Ember is a closed system, then researchers will not be able to explore the limits of additive manufacturing.
Through Ember, we have created a powerful research platform that gives scientists, engineers and designers the opportunity to explore the future of additive manufacturing.
If this sounds interesting, read the first step to learn the science behind Ember.
If you are already familiar with how the dlp sla works, skip to step 2 to learn how to configure the Ember for high speed.
Ember is a 3D printer.
It uses digital projectors to expose, solidify and Harden photosensitive liquid plastics (
We call it resin)
Become a solid part.
This is how the process works: you may notice in the above GIF that the resin tray rotates 60 degrees back and forth after each exposure, let\'s take a look at this in more detail.
When you expose and create each layer, the hardened resin is like glue, combining the construction head with the optical window in the resin tray.
The resin used in Ember is an acrylic and acrylic photo polymer cured through the free radical photopolymerization process.
In order to prevent the printing layer from combining with the optical window, we applied a thin layer of polydione on the window (PDMS)
A silicone rubber rich in oxygen.
The presence of oxygen inhibits radical polymerization, so the oxygen in silicone rubber prevents a very thin layer of resin about 5 microns thick from curing on the surface of silicone rubber.
This means that the print layer does not adhere to the optical window.
For thin uncured resin layers, there will be great suction on the printing layer if you lift the construction head directly.
These suction forces are inversely proportional to the thickness of the uncured resin, in other words, the thicker the uncured layer of the resin, the lower the separation force.
Suction is also proportional to the surface area of the part, the larger the part, the greater the force.
To take advantage of this in Ember, we use the shear separation mechanism.
The resin tray rotates 60 degrees until the construction head is no longer above the optical window, and the uncured resin layer acts as a lubrication and minimizes the shear force.
After rotation, the construction head is directly above the channel deeper than the optical window.
At this time, there is more than 1000 microns of resin between the printing layer and the bottom of the resin tray, which means that the suction power is reduced by 200 times and therefore becomes insignificant, you can lift the build head with the minimum suction applied to the printed part.
The tray rotates 60 degrees back and then prints the next layer.
We call this process minimal force mechanics, which allows Ember to reliably produce incredibly detailed parts like peacock feathers above.
But about 2-
3 s per layer, thus representing approximately 50% of the printing time and limiting the printing speed to 25-
Micron layer to 18mm/hour.
If you are interested in learning more about Ember mechanics, you can download and explore mechanical CAD, which will be shared under creation sharing properties --
Share license.
I\'m going to tell you now that by optimizing the software and materials, you can eliminate this separation step and print it at 440mm/hour.
440mm/hour is 24 times faster than Ember\'s usual printer, and we do this by optimizing three things: first, we need to prepare a variant on our PR48 resin, this variant can solidify to a deeper depth faster.
We call this resin PR48. High-
The speed and recipe are listed below.
UV blocking agent concentration in PR48-High-
The speed is reduced by 4 times compared to the PR48, enabling it to heal faster and reach a deeper depth.
If you would like to learn more about how to adjust your own resin from Ember, check out this instructions.
Printer Configuration: Next, we need to configure the printer settings on Ember, which you can do through emberprinter.
Com or enter the printer via SSH and edit the file/var/smith/config/settings.
On a Mac using the terminal, you can SSH to the printer using the following command (
Remember to change IP address if not connected via USB)
Navigate to the settings file and edit it to edit the following settings: Next measure the irradiance output of Ember with a fresh and clean resin tray (
I recommend using the G & R UV meter model 220 with a 420nm probe or ILT 1400 with SLE005/U detector)
And configure \"project torledcurrent\" so that the output is 20 mW/cm ^ 2. If you have edited the print settings file via SSH, remember to enter the following command to make the changes take effect settings: Now, the material and printer are ready for the time to prepare the print job.
Open print studio, import model 12-15-
14_full_rigeid_lattice.
The stl that comes with it.
For help on how to use Print Studio, see this user guide.
Now create a new custom material that you can start by copying the Autodesk CYMK 25 micron profile.
Configure the profile according to the screenshot above.
In the LayersModel layer, the main settings change: in the object browser, turn off automatic support generation, then slice and send the job to the printer.
I also attach the job file to the Instructure in case you are bothered with the above!
Print: according to Pre-
Print the list, then sit down and watch your Ember print at 440mm/hour.
So cool!
Let\'s see why optimization works, the limitations of the system, what this means in practice, and how it will be improved in the future.
Pull directly (
Printing Without separation)
The main reason to work in this case is because we use software to optimize geometry and materials.
You will notice from the chart above that the global surface area of the lattice structure (
The sum of all white pixels in a given slice)
Never more than 15% slices.
The global surface area must be kept below 15% so that remember that the suction proportional to the surface area will not be greater than the strength of the cured resin, the tear strength of the silicone rubber window and the normal force that the linear drive and motor can provide.
If the suction exceeds any of them, the failure mode is as follows: you can see from the graphics and videos at the top of this step that the geometry changes rapidly from one layer to the other, it shows that the fluid flows easily into areas that need to be cured.
If we are going to print a vertical column, and then, after a few layers, all the fluid between the part and the silicone rubber will run out, it is difficult to get more fluid into the curing area.
We also optimized the material to solidify it faster and deeper by reducing the size of the photo
Inhibitor, which allows us to print deeper layers.
Technically, you can say that because the printing speed of the 250 micron layer is 10 times that of the 25 micron layer.
But with the optimization of geometry and process, we can make Ember print 24 times faster.
There are four main limitations to limiting geometry, and you can print the global surface area: the suction generated by the global surface area of the part must not exceed the normal separation force of the system.
Local surface area: the maximum length of each local surface area to the center of the boundary should be less than the maximum distance from the boundary to the center of the fluid particle at a given printing speed and resin viscosity.
Essentially, if the local surface area of the pillar is too large, the resin will not reach the center.
Local surface area change rate: Location local surface area change rate should make no pixel exposure in X continuous layers.
The strength of the cured material: At a certain speed, the normal force will become greater than the strength of the cured material, resulting in the printing part opening its own distance.
Future work, so, how can you build a system faster?
Make it harder: the harder the system, the faster you pull, the faster you print.
Each part of the system needs to be hard enough to withstand suction;
This includes cured resin, optical window and Z-axis.
But be careful, if you make the resin too hard and strong, it will be difficult to remove any brackets from the construction head.
Make the suppression layer thicker: The suppression layer is not so thick at 5 microns.
If you can get up to 500 of the inhibition layer
1000 micron thick, then the suction is negligible, the Holy Grail, but more challenging than it seems.
Make the resin cured faster and less viscosity: resin with lower viscosity cured in milliseconds will increase the printing speed, but will not overcome the above restrictions.
What do these restrictions mean in practice?
First of all, you are unable to print standard dlp sla parts such as tooth repair, hearing aid or ring.
Even thin-walled parts like earshell and Crown, the surface area of each layer is too large to work (
At least on Ember).
We found that all parts printed using this technology require thin grids.
The Spark team has developed a tool that allows you to create a grid structure from an entity model.
For example, if we use the ubiquitous Stanford rabbit, we can create a lattice representation and then slice it for Ember using Print Studio, but it is difficult to control the final product with this technology.
For example, if you download the rabbit model, you will find that some grid parts in the ear are not connected to the body.
Successfully high-
Speed DLP, you need to understand the design software for processes, hardware, and materials.
At Autodesk, we are working on, building, and testing solutions that can change the future.
In the future, you may not be sitting on a workstation, sketching, squeezing and forming parts.
You can use a generative design tool like Dreamcatcher, where you enter a set of high
Level goals include how you want to make a product, and computers iterate through thousands of design options until they find design options that meet all your goals.
The output will be a feature for highspeed DLP.
The key to the high unlock-
As a manufacturing process, fast DLP is more than just new hardware or materials, and in fact it relies on developing new design software that can take full advantage of existing features.
That\'s why we are building an interconnected ecosystem of hardware, software, and materials so that we can provide production-ready additive manufacturing workflows.