Carbon3D offers a faster way to create stuffs with 3D printing

The start-up 3D printing company, Carbon3D Inc. has been introducing a new method of 3D printing that offers better speed and quality. The technology grows a part in the printing machine instead of printing them layer by layer like other 3D printing machines do.

Chief executive officer and co-founder of Carbon3D Inc. Joseph DeSimone told Forbes, that 3D printing industry has been dominated by mechanical engineers who print two-dimensional objects up layer by layer.

He said that the company made a breakthrough by growing parts instead of following traditional 3D printing method.

The traditional method of 3D printing uses a fused deposition modelling, which is basically a liquid-shooting gun controlled by a robot arm that moves back and forth depositing 2D layers to make a full 3D object.

While the Carbon3D machine grows 3D object and pulls it from a tub of liquid materials. DeSimone said that the technology is a variation of a technique called stereolithography which is the use of light to solidify liquid objects.

Carbon3D machine uses UV light to trigger the 3D forming reaction (photopolymerization), and oxygen to inhibit it.

The specific 3D design formed by balancing the interaction of UV light and oxygen into a tub of material like resin. DeSimone has made the contribution to this machine by replacing the bottom of the tub with a glass that is porous to oxygen, like a contact lens.

The oxygen through the glass creates a thin layer under between the glass and the object so the object won't stick to the glass and makes it possible to grow continuously.

A UV light from beneath the glass solidifies the bottom layer of liquid in a precise pattern based on the object's 3D file. The machine equipped with a robotic arm to pull out the solidified object out of the tub.

Carbon3D can produce 3D objects with higher resolutions at speed 25 to 100 times faster than other techniques.  

The machine also allows the manufacturers to access a wider variety of performance materials such as elastomers with a high elasticity that can be used for athletic shoes manufacturing, or high-temperature resistance materials needed for automotive parts.

Carbon3D Inc., founded in 2013, has been enticing many giant companies with its breakthrough on 3D printing.

According to 3D Print, tech giant company Google Inc. just invested $100 million to the company. Other companies, Ford Motor and Hollywood special effects studio Legacy Effects, have been testing Carbon3D machine to create parts.

In Motley Fool, Carbon 3D Inc. revealed plans to release the enterprise 3D printing machines in 2016.

It is likely the shoes company Nike will be partnering with Carbon3D to produce 3D printed shoes as the machine is the only 3D printers that meet Nike's production speed.