Carbon3D introduces radical layerless 3D printing technology

The takeaway

You knew there had to be more to 3D printing that what we’ve seen so far. You were right.

The details

Yesterday the CEO of a stealth mode start-up stepped into the spotlight to introduce a new approach to 3D printing. Instead of laying down layer after layer, the new Continuous Liquid Interface Production technology (CLIP) from Carbon3D harnesses light and oxygen to continuously grow objects from a pool of resin instead of printing them layer-by-layer.

Carbon3D’s new 3D printer uses photo polymerization to “grow” objects instead of laying down layer after layer as with existing 3D printers. (Source: Carbon3D)

“Current 3D printing technology has failed to deliver on its promise to revolutionize manufacturing,” said Dr. Joseph DeSimone, CEO and Co-Founder, Carbon3D, at the TED Conference. “Our CLIP technology offers the game-changing speed, consistent mechanical properties and choice of materials required for complex commercial quality parts.”

Existing 3D printing technology—more property “additive manufacturing” —is a series of 2D printing steps using plastics or metals, to build up an object layer by layer. Carbon3D says its CLIP method is layerless, using light and oxygen to trigger a controlled photo polymerization effect. Carbon3D says the CLIP method “continuously grows objects from a pool of resin at speeds 25-100 times faster than traditional 3D printing.”

DeSimone told TED conference attendees the new approach to 3D printing was inspired by the T-1000 robot in the film Terminator 2, where the robot appears out of a mass of molten goo. An object was formed on-stage using the CLIP process during DeSimone’s talk, in under seven minutes. He claims the CLIP process is between 25 and 100 times faster than existing commercial 3D printers.

The Carbon 3D Continuous Liquid Interface Production technology (CLIP) technology. (Source: Carbon3D)

At the heart of the CLIP process is a special window that is transparent to light and permeable to oxygen, much like a contact lens. By controlling the oxygen flux through the window, CLIP creates a “dead zone” in the resin pool just tens of microns thick (about 2-3 diameters of a red blood cell) where photopolymerization cannot occur. As a series of cross-sectional images of a 3D model is played like a movie into the resin pool from underneath, the physical object emerges continuously from just above the dead zone.

Carbon3D says conventionally made 3D printed parts “are notorious for having mechanical properties that vary depending on the direction the parts were printed because of the layer-by-layer approach.” By contrast, Carbon3D claims CLIP produces consistent and predictable mechanical properties, smooth on the outside and solid on the inside.

Carbon3D is backed by $40 million in venture capital funding, led by Sequoia Capital along with Northgate Partners, Piedmont Capital Partners and Wakefield Group. “If 3D printing hopes to break out of the prototyping niche it has been trapped in for decades, we need to find a disruptive technology that attacks the problem from a fresh perspective and addresses 3D printing’s fundamental weaknesses,” said Jim Goetz, Carbon3D board member and Sequoia partner. “When we met Joe [DeSimone] and saw what his team had invented, it was immediately clear to us that 3D printing would never be the same.”