A team from the Bauhaus University of Weimar presents DISH, a manufacturing method that reduces the creation time of millimeter-sized objects to 0.6 seconds. This hybrid technique fuses principles of turning with photopolymerization from 3D printing. Its speed opens possibilities in areas that demand agile, miniaturized, and custom components, such as microfluidics or biomedicine.
The Rotating Disk and Projected Light Mechanism ⚙️
The system uses a disk that rotates submerged in a tank of photosensitive resin. A DLP light projector illuminates the resin selectively through a window in the bottom of the tank, solidifying extremely thin layers instantly. The continuous rotation of the disk allows the geometry to be built layer by layer at high speed, overcoming the bottlenecks of mechanical movements in traditional printers.
Your FDM Printer Now Looks Like a Hungover Turtle 🐢
While your faithful filament printer purrs for hours to make a simple pen holder, DISH produces a complex microstructure in the time it takes you to sneeze. It's the equivalent of comparing an ox cart to a jet fighter. Maybe it's time for our trusty workhorses mechanical printers to consider early retirement, or at least not to look towards the Weimar lab so they don't get depressed.