How 3D Printing Works

We think Spock would be proud…

At first, it sounds like something out of science fiction…technology that can make accurate objects based on what exists on a computer? Usually in a matter of hours and from a white powder? Design. Upload. Print. Digital to physical with a few mouse clicks?

Yep. It’s never been easier to take what exists on a computer screen and make it a physical object. In fact, almost any physical object down to 1/16 of an inch can be built.

To date, architectural models have been constructed with maybe a laser cutter or worst case an Exacto knife and cardboard. 3D printing promises to do away with all those late nights and Band-Aids.

The somewhat formal name of “3D printing” is what its called but it’s pretty simple– the best analogy is a stack of pancakes.

Think about breakfast for a second.  A plate of round pancakes can be stacked one on top of another to form a cylinder. Make square pancakes, stack them up, and a cube is born.  More complicated shapes require irregular shaped pancakes but they still get stacked one on top of another to form a solid object.

Now, these are tiny, tiny layers. In fact, about 60 of them exist in a single inch.

CAD, Corn Starch, Sugar

The process starts with a very fine white powder that resembles cornstarch in consistency.  The toxicity is so low that it is almost food-grade in quality.  On the computer, a house or hillside is sliced up digitally and made into an outline or “pancake.” From here it is fed into the machine and each outline of that pancake traced out using a small dispenser on an “x” and “y” axis.  A sugar and water binder is applied to temporarily glue each layer together.

It’s commonly referred to as an “additive process”. The best part is it generates the least waste (97% is recycled back through) which means less cost for our clients and easier on the environment.

However, the success of the architecture model hinges on a perfect “water tight” Computer Aided Design (CAD) file called a Stereolithography or STL for short. Preparing this file is typically the most tedious and difficult task of the entire process of going from 2D drawings on the computer to the 3D model in the hand.  If not carefully produced, a corrupt CAD file causes the model to “blow up” in the machine and the results are fragments of building materials that simply crumble upon removal.

This is always a defeating and expensive experience.

Check out this video for more info: