Background
Volumetric Additive Manufacturing (VAM) is an emerging technology in near-instant 3D printing where the part is formed in free space without imposed stress. Currently, containers that hold the resin must be replaced between prints. This is manual and time-consuming, which precludes the method to scaling for high throughput applications.
Description
LLNL researchers have developed an approach to incorporate flow (either in stop-flow or continuous flow operation) to replace resin in the vial to enable high throughput production of 3D printed parts with VAM.
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Advantages
- VAM is already one of the most competitive VAT photopolymerization methods for speed, this implement unlocks even faster rates - opens a path towards 100x mfg rate
- Continuous printing - does not require manual operation to swap out resin containers after print is completed
Potential Applications
Fast, accurate, repeatable high-throughput production of 3D printed parts with arbitrary geometries
Development Status
Current stage of technology development:
TRL ☐ 0-2 ☒ 3-5 ☐ 5-9
Reference Number
2025-313
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