#Industry (Production, process)
Flexible Hybrid Slicing will optimize & speed up your 3D printing projects, coming soon to Kickstarter
Anyone with a desktop 3D printing will doubtlessly admit that, while a lot of fun, 3D printers can be agonizingly slow
Even relatively small projects tend to quickly take hours and hours, encouraging ridicule from your family. That’s exactly why we are very interested in a new 3D printing principle, developed by two Dutch entrepreneurs, called Flexible Hybrid Slicing. Not only will it allow you to 3D print shapes and forms hitherto impossible to make, it also has the potential to speed up 3D printing by up to 80%!
While Flexible Hybrid Slicing won’t be released to Kickstarter until Tuesday or Wednesday, Dutch developers Gerben Eykenaar and Maarten Kurver were kind enough to introduce their innovative approach to us already. Over the past one and a half years, the duo has been working on refining a remarkably simple solution to the tediousness of 3D printing: incorporating a special type of supportive sheet material into the manufacturing process. It’s called Triple D3 layer material, and is a type of Modified Polystyrene (MPS) solid sheet that has a very interesting reaction when PLA filament is 3D printed on top of it.
Essentially, it creates a semi-permanent bond with the PLA, but can also be easily removed after printing is complete. Instead of 3D printing endless support structures, you can instead simply pause the printing process halfway through, place bits of Triple D3 Layer material on necessary spots and continue printing. They call this technique Flexible Hybrid Slicing and it will not only save a lot of time, it also enables you to design and 3D print shapes that would otherwise be impossible to create.
‘By successfully eliminating unnecessary volume- and support printing through so-called Triple D3® layer material the total printing time can be improved considerably in almost all cases’, says Gerben Eykenaar. ‘The trick of this developed sheet material is, that it will provide for a perfect level of adhesion for both very commonly used PLA and PS filament, albeit that the sheet material may be released from the printed PLA layers afterwards (due to its unique Stick-N-Slide® properties).’ Not only does this mean you don’t need support material, but you can also save time by using sheets of Triple D3 to replace other sections that don’t necessarily need to be 3D printed.
‘So, if we print a box we do not print the bottom layer and top layer, but replace this with the insert of the solid MPS sheet material. This not only means an enormous improvement in printing time, but also gives the opportunity to play with the sheet material in another way,’ Eykenaar says. ‘If you print the box with the PLA filament, the PLA will stick during the printing process on the MPS sheet material and thus allowing for very sharp lines and edges and a troublesome free 90 degree overhang, albeit that you still can release the sheet afterwards.’ This enables you to easily make small horizontal grooves and overhanging sections easily and quickly, something which would otherwise be a time-consuming nightmare that tends to fail.
To incorporate this Flexible Hybrid Slicing technique into your 3D printing process, the duo has also developed a plug-and-play beta software ( called the FHS-App) to support the design, slicing and printing process. Using this app will enable you to place Triple D3 material onto your projects without the extrusion head getting ‘lost’.
While more information will doubtlessly be revealed as part of the launch of their Kickstarter campaign, the pair have already designed a fun little 3D printed game using their FHS technique. It’s called ‘MyGrow Golf’, and it would be impossible to 3D print without a sheet of Triple D3. ‘It reflects all basic features of the implemented process technology’, says Maarten Kurver. ‘So, it is far more than just inserting a material piece into the 3D print, as designing a fully operational sliding lid within a 3D print is now possible and easily reproducible, thanks to the unique stick-and-release properties of the very sheet material.’
Gerben Eykenaar, owner of The Export Office, and Maarten Kurver, owner of Ctrl Design, are Dutch engineers who have extensively collaborated with universities and industrial specialists to develop their FHS 3D printing technique. Through their forthcoming Kickstarter, they are hoping to raise the funds necessary to take their Triple D3 sheet material into production. While we do not yet know what amount of funds they are trying to raise, their crowdfunding campaign will definitely be worth a visit. Who wouldn’t want to greatly speed up 3D printing and create more diverse and interesting shapes?
