A.C. Uzcategui, J.E. Hergert, R.R. McLeod
Vitro3D,
United States
Keywords: advanced manufacturing, VAT photopolymerization, polymers, 3D printing, VAM, volumetric additive manufacturing
Summary:
Volumetric additive manufacturing technologies have solved translations between 3D object and image spaces for rapid fabrication in homogeneous, high viscosity resin without layering or support structures. Parallax manufacturing (PM) expands these capabilities by introducing a fourth dimension of address. PM rapidly moves an optical toolhead above a flat slab of photosensitive resin that addresses resin voxels with individually controlled beamlets tilted in two angles. This approximately squares the number of beams that intersect at each voxel, dramatically increasing the solution space available to the optimization algorithm. The resin slab used in PM is unlimited in transverse extent, allowing for large area fabrication. In contrast, the transverse size of the computed axial lithography cylinder must be equal to its depth which is limited to several cm by diffraction. This architecture importantly utilizes a translation geometry that matches established manufacturing platforms including assembly lines, CNC machine tool beds and roll-to-roll processing.