Rapid digital light 3D printing enabled by a soft and deformable hydrogel separation interface
Open accessAbstract
The low productivity of typical 3D printing is a major hurdle for its utilization in large-scale manufacturing. Innovative techniques have been developed to break the limitation of printing speed, however, sophisticated facilities or costly consumables are required, which still substantially restricts the economic efficiency. Here we report that a common stereolithographic 3D printing facility can achieve a very high printing speed (400 mm/h) using a green and inexpensive hydrogel as a separation interface against the cured part. In sharp contrast to other techniques, the unique separation mechanism relies on the large recoverable deformation along the thickness direction of the hydrogel interface during the layer-wise printing. The hydrogel needs to be extraordinarily soft and unusually thick to remarkably reduce the adhesion force which is a key factor for achieving rapid 3D printing. This technique shows excellent printing stability even for fabricating large continuous solid structures, which is extremely challenging for other rapid 3D printing techniques. The printing process is highly robust for fabricating diversified materials with various functions. With the advantages mentioned above, the presented technique is believed to make a large impact on large-scale manufacturing.
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The combination of 3D printing and the on-demand autonomous shape-shifting offers unique advantages beyond other 4D printing systems.
“The combination of 3D printing and the on-demand autonomous shape-shifting offers unique advantages beyond other 4D printing systems 26-28 .”
From Shape memory polymer with programmable recovery onset (2023) · cites this paper as [27]
The Results (Resins compatibility; page unavailable) describe a 3D-printed shape-memory rabbit whose programmed shape recovers around 40 °C. The paper does not establish autonomous shape-shifting on demand or advantages over other 4D-printing systems. (LLM, conf=0.84)
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Shape memory polymer with programmable recovery onset
Ni, C., Chen, D., Yin, Y., Wen, X., Chen, X., Yang, C., Chen, G., Sun, Z., Wen, J., Jiao, Y., et al. (2023) · Nature · doi:10.1038/s41586-023-06520-8 · Cited by 386 · see citing works
“The combination of 3D printing and the unique shape-shifting behaviour offers advantages beyond other four-dimensional (4D) printing systems 27–29 .”
BackgroundSelf-citation
- Authors
- Wu, J., Guo, J., Linghu, C., Lu, Y., Song, J., Xie, T., & Zhao, Q.
- Affiliations
- State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering (CN)
- Zhejiang University (CN)
- Corresponding author
- Song, Jizhou
- Zhao, Qian
- Venue
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2021-10-18
- Volume
- 12
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 6070-6070
- ISSN
- 2041-1723 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC8523520
- OpenAlex
- W3206267094
- Cited by
- 109
- References
- 42
- Citations by year
- 2026: 21 · 2025: 24 · 2024: 29 · 2023: 21 · 2022: 14
- FWCI
- 5.20
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- Nature Communications (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China (51822307, U20A6001)
- Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province (LR18E030001, U20A6001)
- Science and Technology Program of Zhejiang Province (2019C03071)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Automotive Engineering › Additive Manufacturing and 3D Printing Technologies
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Biomedical Engineering › 3D Printing in Biomedical Research
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Building and Construction › Innovations in Concrete and Construction Materials
- Keywords
- digital light processing, stereolithography, adhesion reduction, printing speed, large-scale manufacturing, soft materials
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