Online 3D printing service provider Sculpteo has teamed up with Carbon3D to offer their incredibly fast CLIP technology.
March 1st 2016 – The California-based startup Carbon3D unveiled the groundbreaking 3D printing method about a year ago. The Continuous Liquid Interface Production (CLIP) technology uses light and oxygen to model photosensitive liquid resin. Instead of printing objects layer by layer, parts “grow” as a single piece with a seamless finish and no visible layers.
Using a tunable photochemical process the object is created by carefully balancing the interaction of UV light and oxygen in a tank of resin. UV light cures the liquid polymer in a process called photopolymerisation, while oxygen inhibits the reaction. The bottom of the resin tank, the so called “window”, is transparent to light and permeable to oxygen, just like a contact lens. The flow of oxygen creates a “dead zone” at the very bottom, inhibiting photopolymerisation, so the object can grow continuously while being drawn from the tank.
Sculpteo is one of the first 3D printing service to offer this technology, including several new materials ranging from rigid to flexible in order to create prototypies as well as high resolution commercial quality parts. “These materials have been designed to respond to key engineering requirements, from the elongation and strength expected of injection-molded elastomers to the temperature resistance of a nylon-glass composite,” Sculpteo writes. The 3D printer has been installed at their facility in San Leandro, California. The service is available as of today.
“This new technology and the revolutionary materials offered are taking 3D printing to a new level“, Clément Moreau, CEO and Co-founder of Sculpteo said. “The gap between product design and manufacturing has never been shorter; these speeds are game-changing…”
Several other companies have already teamed up with the 3D printing startup as well, including automotive company Ford, Johnson & Johnson and Legacy Effects.
July 19st 2016 – Testphase ends with success
The pilot program for the CLIP technology at Sculpteo is now over. The service provider and their customers used the time to test the hardware and the materials in depth.
Since June the most popular material, Rigid Pilyuretane (RPU), for the CLIP technology is available to all customers of Sculpteo. Today the service provider announced that the materials Cyanate Ester and Prototyping Acrylate are now available too.
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