What is a 3 D Printer?

    A 3D printer is a device that manufactures a product with the help of a three-dimensional model developed on any 3D modeling software, with the successive placement of layers of material the product is developed in few hours without any human interaction.  

It is just like an inkjet printer probably uses plastic besides ink to operate. The plastic is mostly thermoplastic and most typically either ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene), PLA (polylactic acid), or PETG (polyethylene terephthalate glycol).  Thermoplastics are melted at higher temperatures and become solid again when we cool them, they are used in making car and fridge interiors, and ABS is a quite popular material in the 3D printing industry because of their easy handling and shaping properties.

Plastic is not an essential material for 3D printing any material which is molten and becomes solid after cooling can be used for this purpose.

3D printing technology:

    3D printing has got tremendous popularity in a short time. The design is firstly prepared in the 3D model software that is probably a cad model or a 3D scan image. The 3D image is further Slices into layers, this layered model is readable by the 3D printer. The printer prints the structure in layered form as per the programming and the timer set.

There are a lot of 3D printers are available now and they have used in the industry in many domains ranging from auto part designing to building 3D printed houses. Depending upon functionality different types of materials are used in this printing technology. The material used for modeling is mostly molten plastic, cement, metals, and sand, but plastic is the most used material in this technology as mentioned earlier.

Working Principle of 3D printer:

    As we discussed earlier depending upon the functionality and the manufacturing products many 3D printer technologies are available in the market, some of them use powdered materials such as Nylon, Ceramic metal to get a product. In that type the material is first melted with the heaters at high temperature then they print the Product. 

While the second type is that which uses high polymer resign material for the production. In that type the resigns are melted by a high-frequency Laser beam. While some of them use the Droplets technique for this, they mostly use plastic as a manufacturing material, which is mentioned earlier. Researchers are working on the improvement and development of software to make it accessible and cheaper for industrial usage.

3D printing required a lot of pre-ranked before production, ranging from file 3 d File preparation to the Program and command given. Furthermore, some fishing might be necessary for some products. A complete 3D printing process is discussed below.

Process of 3D printing:

Stereolithography:   

Stereolithography is one of the famous 3D modeling technique in the modern era in which layers of solidified resign makes a complete structure. SL process consists of a Polymer resign With Laser beam technology. The Laser beam reacts with the Polymer resign to form a 3D Product. The Polymer resign is kept in a specific vessel having a moveable piston in it. That moveable piston helps draw complex designing and for finishing.

The Laser beam is directed towards the resigning so that resign solidifies where the laser beam touches with the resign and forms a specify shape. Specific coding is given to the Laser Emitter as per the shape we desired to manufacture. The laser is coded in such a way that it forms the shape in the layer structure, Consecutive layers form the complete model. For shapes where we need undercut ad overhangs that process is done manually.

DLP;

    DLP is known as digital light processing, it is similar to stereolithography. DLP Printing works with photopolymers, the major difference between DLP and the SL is the light source that is used in DLP. DLP uses an Armc lamp with a photovoltaic cell more probably deformable mirror device. 

The light source from the lamp after passing through the photovoltaic layer passes through the resin and prints the product as designed. The structure and support required for DLP are the same as SL, but DLP is quite better than SL as it gives Low running costs, and less resign waste.

Laser Sintering / Laser Melting :

    Laser sintering or Laser melting is another technique of #D printing. In this technique, the laser li9ght which is specially programmed is given to the powered material that fusses into the desired shape. The Whole Mechanism consists of a laser emitter, Laser monitoring device, a roller, a container for the powder resignation. 

The Powder material through which the product is supposed to be designed is contained in the sealed container, the laser is targeted on it as the product code, and the laser melts the powder so that it is fused and strictly combined, and form a solid state. The product is formed as per coded by Layer by layer mechanism. The excess material is removed after the formation which causes low wastage. One of the benefits of this device is that the powered use in this process helps in overhung and undercut processes.

Laser centering produces Metal and Plastic 3D parts. The products produced due to this process are much stronger than SL. DLP printing.

Inkjet 3D technique:

    Inkjet technique is basically of two types.

• Blinder jetting
• Material jetting

Binder jetting:

    Binder jetting Mechanism is shown in the figure. Binder jetting is used for binding powder material into the desired shape. The roller was used to move the binding material into the build-in piston, where the programmed binder droplets were sprayed.

Material Jetting Mechanism:    

 In material Jetting Mechanism as the name shown material is sprayed on the metal disc with heaters fitted in it. The liquid which is probably molten photopolymer is sprayed ge fused with heaters in the metal disc platform. The fans are operated for the cooling of the layer structure. Material jetting is the most precise mechanism in modern industry.