article details

Help Center

New "injection printing" technology improves 3D printing capabilities

Industry News > New "injection printing" technology improves 3D printing capabilities

A researcher at the University of Massachusetts Lowell has developed a new 3D printing technology that combines an injection molding process to increase the productivity of 3D printing while enhancing the performance of the product. More durable prosthetic devices and stronger aircraft and automotive components are potential applications.

David Kazmer, a professor of plastics engineering who led this research project, said that although the global 3D plastic printer market is valued at 4 billion U.S. dollars and is still growing, it is ensuring that the printer creates objects that are produced quickly, maintains their strength, and accurately reflects the desired shape. There are still challenges. This technology is called injection molding and has a special report in the academic journal Additive Manufacturing.

Kazmer and Austin Colon wrote in Additive Manufacturing: Injection printing combines high-resolution material extrusion on the outer surface of the part with injection molding of a larger cavity at high flow rates. Colon is a doctoral student in plastics engineering, and he helped validate this technology. They added: “Therefore, injection printing aims to use the full melting power of the material extrusion printer to alleviate the curse of size that plagues the additive manufacturing industry.”

As one of the seven additive manufacturing processes, material extrusion is to feed continuous filaments made of thermoplastic or composite materials through a nozzle, heat in the nozzle and deposit layer by layer on a build platform.

Kazmer said: “We use a 3D printer as an injection molding device to fill the space created by the 3D printed shell wall. In other words, we use the inside of the part as its own mold cavity. The key is to calculate the distance and height of the shell wall, so that A good filling effect can be obtained without excessive deformation. Surprisingly, the engineering design of the mold is related to the process planning of injection molding in terms of flow, deformation and heat transfer," he added, "although this The process is backward compatible with existing 3D printers, but the control program (G code) for injection printing does require a new pre-processor (slicing machine)."

Kazmer pointed out that most thermoplastics that can be processed by fuse manufacturing (FFF) are compatible with injection printing. In fact, it is reported that Kazmer's invention can transfer more heat into parts, so material welding has been greatly improved compared with FFF. "This means that there is a lot of potential to achieve higher strength and higher isotropy in a large amount of filled material," Kazmer said. "Printing speed is limited by the ability to melt the material and release heat from the part. Typical flow rate It’s about 4mm³/s. I found that most low-end 3D printers can melt about 12 mm³/s. With a few modifications to the hot end, you can easily deposit 20mm³/s."

Kazmer admits that HP's multi-jet fusion (MJF) and Carbon's digital light synthesis (DLS) are more productive because they are parallel processing layers, which he believes is a big advantage in terms of production speed. However, he pointed out that injection printing increases output by filling the large internal volume defined by the walls of the printing housing. Therefore, injection printing reduces the dimension of the problem, enabling FDM/FFF to compete better. "For technology and high-volume applications, injection molding is a big driving force." Kazmer emphasized.

previous：Material transformation is critical to the plastics industry next：Scientists have discovered microplastics in human tissues

New "injection printing" technology improves 3D printing capabilities

Return & Exchange

Fast Delivery

Member Discount