Liquid 3D printing

Anovel 3D printing technology, Continuous Liquid Interface Production (CLIP) manipulates light and oxygen to fuse objects in liquid media, for the first 3D printing process that uses tunable photochemistry. The system projects beams of light through an oxygen-permeable window into a liquid resin. Working in tandem, light and oxygen control the solidification of the resin, creating commercially viable objects that can have feature sizes of less than 20µm.

Joseph M. DeSimone, professor of chemistry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) and chemical engineering at North Carolina State University (NCSU), is the CEO of Carbon3D Inc. He invented the method with colleagues Alex Ermoshkin, chief technology officer at Carbon3D and Edward Samulski, chemistry professor at UNC.

“By rethinking the whole approach to 3D printing, and the chemistry and physics behind the process, we have developed a new technology that can create parts radically faster than traditional technologies by essentially growing them in a pool of liquid,” DeSimone, says.

Through a sponsored research agreement between UNC and Carbon3D, the team is pursuing advances to the technology, as well as new, compatible materials. CLIP works with a wide range of materials such as elastomers, silicones, nylon-like materials, ceramics, and biodegradable materials. The technology also provides a blueprint for synthesizing novel materials to further research.

“In addition to using new materials, CLIP can allow us to make stronger objects with unique geometries that other techniques cannot achieve, such as cardiac stents personally tailored to meet the needs of a specific patient,” DeSimone says. “Since CLIP facilitates 3D polymeric object fabrication in a matter of minutes instead of hours or days, it would not be impossible within coming years to enable personalized coronary stents, dental implants, or prosthetics to be 3D printed on-demand in a medical setting.”

CLIP’s debut coincides with the United Nation designating 2015 as the International Year of Light and Light-Based Technologies, which recognizes important anniversaries of scientific advances enabled with light.