A study of 3D printing method in the office SFF system

Currently, SFF (solid freeform fabrication) technologies are being developed for diverse processes. 3DP (three-dimensional printing), one of these SFF technologies, confers the advantage of high-speed processing at low cost, since it makes use of multi-nozzle inkjet printing. However, it requires additional post-processing due to the additional drying time of the adhesive and the lower mechanical strength of the fabricated product. This paper proposes a novel 3DP process which can improve the slow solidification and post-processing by applying photopolymer resin and UV curing apparatus to the conventional 3DP process. To verify the feasibility of the proposed process, the mechanical strengths (tensile and bending), surface roughness, and dimensional errors of the specimen were compared with those of the conventional process. The result showed an improvement of the yield stress by 5 times and the dimensional accuracy in the z-axis by approx. 50%. Furthermore, the overall fabrication time (with the proposed novel 3DP process) was faster than the conventional process by approx. 200%, since the proposed method does not require any additional solidification time or post-processing due to the improvement in strength.