National Taiwan University of Science and Technology

~~High Speed 3D Printing Research Center~~

Additive Manufacturing Assignment

AM Process Categories

Yeabsra Mekdim
M10803811

April 6, 2020
Page ▪ 1
 Vat Photopolymerization
SLA (Stereolithography) Process Steps

Is an additive manufacturing process in which an object is 1. The build platform is first positioned in the tank
created by selectively curing a polymer resin layer-by-layer of liquid photopolymer, at a distance of one
using an ultraviolet (UV) laser beam. layer height for the surface of the liquid.

2. Then a UV laser creates the next layer by

selectively curing and solidifying the
photopolymer resin. The laser beam is focused
in the predetermined path using a set of mirrors,
called galvos. The whole cross sectional area of
the model is scanned, so the produced part is
fully solid.

3. When a layer is finished, the platform moves at

a safe distance and the sweeper blade re-coats
the surface. The process then repeats until the
part is complete.
• The UV laser beam cures the photopolymer resin point by
point. 4. After printing, the part is in a green, no-fully-
• It can produce parts with high dimensional accuracy, cured state and requires further post processing
smooth surface finish, and intricate details. under UV light if very high mechanical and
• Relatively slow process compared to DLP. thermal properties are required.
Page ▪ 2
 Vat Photopolymerization
DLP (Digital Light Processing)
Process Steps
Is an additive manufacturing process in which an object is
created by selectively curing a polymer resin layer-by-layer
1. The build platform is first positioned in the tank
using a specially developed digital light projector screen.
of liquid photopolymer, at a distance of one
layer height for the surface of the liquid.

2. Then the projector flashes an image of an entire

layer to the photopolymer resin curing all points
on a layer at the same time.

3. When a layer is finished, the platform moves at

a safe distance and the sweeper blade re-coats
the surface. The process then repeats until the
part is complete.

• The DLP projector screen flashes an image of a layer all at • They are reliable for parts with low complexity and no
once curing all points of a layer simultaneously. moving parts.
• It produces parts with boxy surface finish, and rough • Since a DLP 3D printer uses a digital projector screen, the
surface finish compared to SLA. resolution of a print directly corresponds to the resolution of
• Relatively fast process compared to SLA. the projector.
Page ▪ 3
 Vat Photopolymerization
CLIP (Continuous Liquid Interface Production)
CLIP works by projecting a continuous sequence of UV
images, generated by a digital light projector, through an • The resin above the dead zone lacks oxygen
oxygen-permeable, UV-transparent window below a liquid and does polymerize when the light strikes it,
resin bath. forming a solid according to the shape of the
projected UV image.

• Due to the oxygen-rich resin at the bottom of the

container, there is always liquid below the
solidifying object, so the object doesn't stick to
the bottom of the container.

• The object is both created and pulled upwards

continually and smoothly without any pauses.

• The part is then baked in a forced-circulation

oven which triggers a new chemical reaction that
• A very thin layer of resin just above the window in the liquid strengthens the object. The process is known as
resin container is rich in oxygen. The oxygen-rich layer thermal curing.
doesn't polymerize as UV light passes through it and is
referred to as the dead zone.

Page ▪ 4
 Material Jetting
PolyJet
Is an additive manufacturing process that builds parts by Process Steps
jetting thousands of photopolymer droplets onto a build
platform and solidifying them with a UV light. 1. The printing process starts with the carriage
moving across the X-axis, across the build
platform. As it moves, the print heads
selectively jet the resin, in the form of droplets,
onto the build platform.

2. Immediately after the resin is jetted, the UV

lights cure it into an ever-growing solid.

3. After a single layer is complete, the build

platform moves down one layer in height and
the process continues until the part is finished.

4. As the part is built support material is added to

• It’s one of the fastest and most accurate 3D printing give supplemental support to down face
technologies currently available. surfaces and overhung features.
• Before printing begins, photopolymer resin must be poured
into the material container and heated. This allows the
substance to reach the desired viscosity.
Page ▪ 5
 Material Jetting
MJP (MultiJet Printing)
Is an additive manufacturing process that uses piezo printhead
technology to deposit either photocurable plastic resin or
casting wax materials layer by layer.
Process Steps
1. MJP printhead prints layers of UV curable liquid
resin onto a build platform.

UV Lamp 2. Wax support material is also jetted to fill voids

Print Head and other non-freestanding features.
Planerizer
Platform 3. UV light flashes to solidify material creating a
fully cured layer and the process continues until
the part is fully created.

• This is an inkjet type of printing process where a print-head • Parts have smooth finish and can achieve accuracies
technology is used. rivaling SLA for many applications.
• The print head consists of numerous minute apertures that • Removing support material is virtually a hands-free
jet multiple build materials and support materials in the operation and allows even the most delicate features and
form of droplets, on subsequent layers. complex internal cavities to be thoroughly cleaned without
Page ▪ 6 damage.
 Material Extrusion
FDM (Fused Deposition Modelling)
Process Steps
Is an additive manufacturing process in which an object is built
by selectively depositing melted material in a pre-determined 1. A spool of thermoplastic filament is first loaded
path layer-by-layer. into the printer. Once the nozzle has reached
the desired temperature, the filament is fed to
the extrusion head and in the nozzle where it
melts.

2. The melted material is extruded in thin strands

and is deposited layer-by-layer in previously
determined locations, where it cools and
solidifies.

3. When a layer is finished, the build platform

moves down (or in other machine setups, the
extrusion head moves up) and a new layer is
deposited.
• The materials used are thermoplastic polymers and come
in a filament form. 4. This process is repeated until the part is
• FDM is the most widely used 3D printing technology. complete.

Page ▪ 7
 Material Extrusion
FFF (Fused Filament Fabrication)

FFF and FDM 3D printers operate similarly because they are

the same. There are no differences when it comes to the
printing processes, however FDM is a trademarked term
while FFF is not.

A heated nozzle ejects molten plastic, depositing it in thin

layers, one on top of another, onto a print bed, eventually
forming the 3D printed part. In order to draw a particular
pattern, the nozzle or the print bed (or both) move while plastic
is being extruded.

Prior to printing, slicing software determines how to break a

3D digital model into layers that the printer is able to print.

Because layers are stacked one on top of the other they are
weaker in one direction than another.

Page ▪ 8
 Material Extrusion
ADAM (Atomic Diffusion Additive manufacturing)

• ADAM is an extrusion based additive manufacturing technology which prints layer-

by-layer, using metal powder contained in a plastic binder.

• When the plastic is melted off, the metal powders can be arranged in exquisite
shapes.

• The plastic dissolves and the metal is sintered into a design.

• The process works layer by layer as metal crystals pass through the bonds of the
printed layers. This allows for an entire part to be created seamlessly with immense
structural durability.

• It looks deceptively like FDM at first glance. However, this is only because it uses
metal powders encased in plastic binders.

• The entire part is sintered at once to create exceptional strength.

• ADAM enables the creation of metal parts with a speed and accuracy.

Page ▪ 9
 Binder Jetting
MJF (Multi Jet Fusion)
Multi Jet Fusion uses an inkjet array to selectively apply fusing
and detailing agents across a bed of nylon powder, which are Once printing has commenced, a layer of build powder is
then fused by heating elements into a solid layer. applied over the print area. A fusing agent is then applied on
the dimensions for the print to be solidified.

This is very similar to binder jetting in that the fusing agent

improves heat absorption, meaning that area will solidify under
the heat while the rest of the material is unaffected.

A detailing agent is applied simultaneously around the edges

of the part to be printed. This helps create sharper surface
finishes with more detail on the boundaries.

The build area is then heated, so that the intended areas

solidify — while the other areas remain in powder form. Multi
Jet Fusion is faster than SLS as the heat source scans the
whole layer at once, rather than tracing the area via a single
point. This is repeated, layer by layer, until the print is finished.
MJF is a mash-up of two older powder bed technologies: SLS
and binder jetting.

Page ▪ 10
 Binder Jetting
SPJ (Single Pass Jetting)
Process Steps
SJP is a metal additive process which works by building metal 1. Layer by layer, a green part is shaped by
parts by adding a layer of powder metal and precisely jetting extruding bound metal rods (metal powder held
the binder used to achieve the form of the desired part. together by wax and polymer binders) through
Bound Metal Deposition
Single Pass Jetting works with full-width print bars containing
over 32,000 jets that work together with powder spreaders to 2. The green part is immersed in proprietary
spread powder and print in a single quick pass across the debind fluid, dissolving primary binder and
build area, jetting millions of droplets per second to form high- creating an open-pore channel structure
resolution parts one layer at a time. throughout the part in preparation for sintering

Anti-sintering agents are then deposited, allowing the supports 3. As the part is heated to temperatures near
to easily fall off after the part is completed. melting, remaining binder is removed and metal
particles fuse together causing the part to
Parts that have been safely printed in minutes instead of hours, densify up to 96-99.8%
are then sintered in the microwave-enhanced furnace.

Page ▪ 11
 Powder Bed Fusion
SLS (Selective Laser Sintering)
Process Steps
SLS is an additive manufacturing process in which a laser
selectively sinters the particles of a polymer powder, fusing 1. The powder bin and the build area are first
them together and building a part layer-by-layer. heated just below the melting temperature of
the polymer and a recoating blade spreads a
thin layer of powder over the build platform.

2. A CO2 laser then scans the contour of the next

layer and selectively sinters (fuses together) the
particles of the polymer powder. The entire
cross section of the component is scanned, so
the part is built solid.

3. When the layer is complete, the build platform

moves downwards and the blade re-coats the
surface. The process then repeats until the
whole part is complete.
• SLS is used for both prototyping of functional polymer 4. After printing, the parts are fully encapsulated in
components and for small production runs, as it offers a the unsintered powder and the powder bin has
very high design freedom, high accuracy and produces to cool down before the parts can be unpacked.
parts with good and consistent mechanical properties.
Page ▪ 12
 Powder Bed Fusion
SLM (Selective Laser Melting)
Process Steps
SLM is an additive manufacturing process method specially
developed for 3D Printing metals. It creates parts additively by 1. An SLM machine has a chamber filled with
fusing metal powder particles together in a full melting process. metal powder. This metal powder is then spread
across the substrate or build plate in very thin
layers by a coater blade.

2. A high power laser then fuses a 2D slice of the

part by selectively melting the powdered
material.

3. The build plate then drops down by the height of

one layer, and the coater spreads another layer
of fresh powder finely across the surface.

4. The process is repeated until a finished part is

obtained.

• Unlike DMLS, SLM fully melts the powder, and therefore it • The surface finish of the sintered parts is rough and,
needs to reach a higher temperature than this other metal depending on the requirements, may need some post-
3D printing technique. processing.
Page ▪ 13
 Powder Bed Fusion
DMLS (Direct Metal Laser Sintering)
Process Steps
DMLS is one of the Additive manufacturing technologies that
directly create a metal part from its 3D computer model. 1. The build begins with dispensing a thin layer of
metal powder onto the build platform.

2. The laser then begins its path for this layer,

selectively sintering the powder into a solid.

3. The sequence of dispensing a layer and

sintering continues until part completion.

4. After the part is left to cool, the surrounding

loose metal powder is removed from the printer.

5. The last steps include support removal as well

as any post-processing needed.

• The difference between DMLS and SLM is the temperature • Printer heaters bring the powder to a temperature near the
used to fuse the metal powder. sintering range of the alloy.
• SLM heats the metal powder until it fully melts into a liquid. • The printer uses an inert gas, which protects the heated
DMLS does not melt the metal powder, so less energy is powder and part as it is built.
needed.
Page ▪ 14
 Powder Bed Fusion
EBM (Electron Beam Melting)
Electron beam melting is additive manufacturing technology Process Steps
that uses an electron beam to fuse metal powder together to
build parts.
1. Powder re-coater deposits a single layer of
preheated powder onto the build platform.

2. The electron beam moves selectively while

melting the powder and causing the powder
particles to fuse together.

3. After one layer is complete, the build platform is

moved down one layer in height. The re-coater
comes in again with a fresh layer of powder,
and the electron beam starts to induce fusion of
powder particles, causing the new layer to form.

4. This process is repeated until the entire part is

• All EBM 3D printers consist of an energy source capable of
finished.
emitting the electron beam, a powder container, a powder
feeder, a powder re-coater, and a heated build platform.

Page ▪ 15
 Direct Energy Deposition
LENS (Laser Engineered Net Shaping)
LENS systems use a high power laser (400W to 3kW) to fuse Process Steps
powdered metals into fully dense three-dimensional 1. Powdered metal particles of less than 150 μm
structures. The LENS 3D printers use the geometric are transmitted through gas flow jets to create
information contained in a Computer-Aided Design (CAD) fully dense layers
solid model to automatically drive the LENS process as it
builds up a component layer by layer. 2. A laser beam melts the top layer of the part in
areas where material is to be added, while
powder metal is injected into the molten pool,
which then solidifies.

3. Layer after layer is added until the part is

complete.

• The process takes place in hermetic chamber of argon gas

to ensure parts cleanliness and to eliminate contamination
with oxygen or nitrogen.

Page ▪ 16
 Direct Energy Deposition
EBAM (Electron Beam Additive Manufacturing)
Electron-beam additive manufacturing is a type of additive
manufacturing, or 3D printing, for metal parts. The raw
material (metal powder or wire) is placed under a vacuum and
fused together from heating by an electron beam.

This technique is distinct from selective laser sintering as the

raw material fuses having completely melted.

The Sciaky company’s proprietary Electron Beam (EB) gun

deposits metal via a wire feedstock, layer by layer, until the
part reaches near-net shape and is ready for finish machining.
Material deposition rates range from 3 to 9 kg of metal per
hour. Compatible metals include titanium, tantalum, and nickel.

This DED technique can also be used to repair damaged parts.

With an EBAM dual wire feed system, it can combine two

different metal alloys into a single melt pool, managed with
independent program control, to create “custom alloy” parts or
ingots.

Page ▪ 17
 Direct Energy Deposition
LMD-w (Laser Metal Deposition)
Laser metal deposition is a generative manufacturing method Process Steps
for metals. The laser creates a weld pool on the component 1. First of all, the laser beam heats up the
surface. Metal powder is automatically added via a nozzle. workpiece locally, creating a weld pool.
Beads that are welded together are formed, resulting in
structures on existing base bodies or entire components. 2. Fine metal powder is sprayed directly into the
weld pool from a nozzle in the processing optics.
It melts there and combines with the base
material.

3. If required, numerous layers can be built upon

each other until part is complete.

• Argon is often used as the shielding gas.

• To apply lines, areas, and shapes, the automatically

controlled processing optics move over the workpiece.

• An intelligent sensor system ensures that the layer

thickness is even everywhere at all times.

Page ▪ 18
 Direct Energy Deposition
WAAM (Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing)
WAAM is a variation of a Direct Energy Deposition technology
and uses an arc welding process to 3D print metal parts.
Process Steps
Unlike the more common metal powder AM processes, WAAM
works by melting metal wire using an electric arc as the heat 1. The wire, when melted, is extruded in the form
source. of beads on the substrate.

2. As the beads stick together, they create a layer

of metal material.

3. The process is then repeated, layer by layer

until the metal part is completed.

• The process is controlled by a robotic arm and the shape is

built upon a substrate material (a base plate) that the part
can be cut from once finished.

• WAAM can work with a wide range of metals, provided they

are in wire form. This list includes stainless steel, nickel-
based alloys, titanium alloys and aluminum alloys. Any
metal that can be welded can also be used with WAAM.
Page ▪ 19
 Sheet Lamination
LOM (Laminated Object Manufacturing) Process Steps

Laminated object manufacturing is additive manufacturing 1. The LOM process uses a system where a
process where an object is created by successively layering continuous sheet of build material is drawn
sheets of build material, bonding them through heat and across the build platform by a system of feed
pressure and then cutting them into the desired shape using rollers. For paper and plastic build material, the
either a blade or a carbon laser. sheet may be coated in an adhesive.

2. A heated roller then passes over the material,

melting the adhesive and pressing the material
down onto the platform.

3. A blade or laser then cuts the desired pattern

into the material and crosshatches the unused
material so it can be removed later.

4. A take-up roll winds up the remaining material.

5. Finally, the build platform drops down the

thickness of one layer, new material is pulled
across the platform and the process is
repeated.

• Laminated Object Manufacturing is mainly used for rapid

Page ▪ 20
prototyping processes, not for production.
 Sheet Lamination
UAM (Ultrasonic Additive Manufacturing)
UAM is ultrasonic welding on a semi-continuous basis where Process Steps
solid metal objects are built up to a net three-dimensional
shape through a succession of welded metal tapes. Through
periodic machining operations, detailed features are milled into 1. In UAM, material is not melted, but instead
the object until a final geometry is created by removing excess joined through ultrasonic welding. This welding
material. uses high-frequency vibration to join surfaces
while the metal remains solid. By welding layer
upon layer upon layer in this way, the process
builds solid parts.

2. While under high-frequency ultrasonic vibration

and constant pressure, the ultrasonic motion
breaks up oxides through friction, enabling the
direct contact of metal on metal.

3. This process is repeated until a solid part has

been built. Then CNC contour milling can be
used to obtain required tolerances and optimal
surface finish for the parts.

Page ▪ 21