Stefanie Pender made a glass FDM machine which extrudes molten glass guided by an industrial robotic arm. Glass is melted by oxygen/propane welding torch. She achieves simple geometric forms, but she gets A for effort and coolness in my book.
MIT developed new high temperature molten glass extruder and 3d printing process. Cool engineering but still very rough objects come out of it.
Project description:
Glass 3D Printing (G3DP)
Additive Manufacturing of Optically Transparent Glass developed by the Mediated Matter Group at the MIT Media Lab in collaboration with the Glass Lab at MIT. Ancient yet modern, enclosing yet invisible, glass was first created in Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt 4,500 years ago. Precise recipes for its production - the chemistry and techniques - often remain closely guarded secrets. Glass can be molded, formed, blown, plated or sintered; its formal qualities are closely tied to techniques used for its formation.
From the discovery of core-forming process for bead-making in ancient Egypt, through the invention of the metal blow pipe during Roman times, to the modern industrial Pilkington process for making large-scale flat glass; each new breakthrough in glass technology occurred as a result of prolonged experimentation and ingenuity, and has given rise to a new universe of possibilities for uses of the material. This show unveils a first of its kind optically transparent glass printing process called G3DP.
G3DP is an additive manufacturing platform designed to print optically transparent glass. The tunability enabled by geometrical and optical variation driven by form, transparency and color variation can drive; limit or control light transmission, reflection and refraction, and therefore carries significant implications for all things glass.
The platform is based on a dual heated chamber concept. The upper chamber acts as a Kiln Cartridge while the lower chamber serves to anneal the structures. The Kiln Cartridge operates at approximately 1900°F and can contain sufficient material to build a single architectural component. The molten material gets funneled through an alumina-zircon-silica nozzle.
The project synthesizes modern technologies, with age-old established glass tools and technologies producing novel glass structures with numerous potential applications. The G3DP project was created in collaboration between the Mediated Matter group at the MIT Media Lab, the Mechanical Engineering Department, the MIT Glass Lab and Wyss Institute. Researchers include John Klein, Michael Stern, Markus Kayser, Chikara Inamura, Giorgia Franchin, Shreya Dave, James Weaver, Peter Houk and Prof. Neri Oxman.
After the great success Airwolf had with their Wolfbite ABS adhesive, now they present Wolfbite Nano adhesive solution for PLA filaments. It will help the object stick to the print surface and prevent warping and similar problems.
From the Wolfbite Nano page:
WolfBite Nano is applied with an applicator brush straight onto glass, eliminating the need for tape. One light coat of Wolfbite can be used for several prints. After applying Wolfbite Nano directly on glass, printing can commence immediately, either with a heated or room-temperature bed.
Airwolf 3D specially formulated the proprietary solution to not only promote excellent adhesion but also to make part removal easy. Parts maybe removed post print by immersing the glass plate in water for a short period of time, if necessary.
“As manufacturers of 3D printers that are capable of printing large parts in PLA, we are aware of the frustrations with painter’s tape and adhesion,” said Wolf “After months of research and development, we are pleased to offer a solution that will benefit nearly all desktop 3D printer users. Wolfbite NANO™ was developed at Airwolf 3D through collaboration with Professor Miodrag “Mickey” Micic, Ph.D., who is a department chairman at Cerritos College in Norwalk, Calif., and a well known polymer chemist.
“This is a new, environmentally friendly solution for resolving the acute problem of PLA- based 3D printing, part adhesion and warpage. The solution is based on a combination of green chemistry and nanotechnology to create the best possible adhesion using compounds which are generally regarded as safe,” said Micic.
Wolfbite is packaged in a two fluid ounce container and comes with a foam brush applicator. It is currently available for sale on the Airwolf website at an introductory price of $19.99.
Airwolf is surely becoming industry leader in adhesion solutions! Good work!
User cvbrg on Instructables made a detailed guide how to use iPad replacement glass as 3d printer build plate. It is cheap and has all the properties needed for good build plate. Simple glass or mirror will degrade and probably brake after time due to thermal stress, so advanced glasses for tablets like "Gorilla glass" could be much better choice.
As cvbrg noted this type of glass has following properties:
Thin, yet flexible tempered glass
Scratch-proof (scratch-resistant, it can be scratched with diamond or tungsten carbide tip scribers)
Great thermal conductivity (for uniform heat distribution)
Very low thermal expansion/distortion (at the usual printing temperatures of 110-120C)
Resistant to pretty much all solvents (Acetone safe)
Pretty cheap (around $15 on Amazon)
Not too hard to hack it into a build plate (see instructions)
You will need to remove touch electronics and plastics which is simple to do.
It is claimed in the description of the video (from 2012) that it is the largest ceramic 3d printer in the world with 80 X 80 X 80cm print area. It was built on H.I.T Institute (Israel) by Eran Gal-Or. It can be used to print ceramic, porcelain and glass objects.
Petleh82 improved his Ultimaker. He added cheap Bluetooth module to enable wireless printing. He also stopped using blue tape on printbed and replaced it it with glass. To get PLA to stick to the glass print surface he coated it in mixture of wood glue and water. He successfully printed with nylon on glaass since it has problems sticking and warping on blue tape. Nice projects Petleh!
Check out previous post with a video on his one year with the 3d printer. He really shows how printers are useful and fun in everyday life:
