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Market Opportunity
As the multi-billion dollar 3D printing market grows at an alarming pace (average 28.5% compound annual growth rate over multiple sectors), there is a need for technologies that enable faster, more accurate and economical printing. Current stereolithography (SLA) processes have sped up this process by printing layers; however, the...
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Market Opportunity
Since stereolithography (SL) was invented in 1980s, various research has been done to improve its fabrication performance including fabrication speed, part size, geometry resolution, and scalability, etc. However, three main tradeoffs among the fabrication performances need to be made in the SL process that limit its broader applications,...
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Market Opportunity
3D printing – especially stereolithography (SL), the most popular form of 3D printing – has an innate problem where the printed material sticks to the working surface. The solution to this problem has been to print a sacrificial layer first. This solution poses two problems: the sacrificial layer adds material costs;...
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Market Opportunity
Additive manufacturing continues to find applications in rapid prototyping and manufacturing. One popular technique, stereolithography, uses light energy to trigger a polymerization reaction that solidifies select portions of a photo-curable resin. Advances have been made in speed, resolution, and size. To fabricate large parts,...
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Market Opportunity
Vat photopolymerization offers benefits over soft lithography for microfluidic device production, but the technique struggles with controlled micrometer- sized channels due to transparent resin's deep light penetration. This results in over-curing and channel blockages. There is a potential market opportunity for the development...
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3D fabrication
Abstract
USC researchers have developed reusable and automatic supports for use in 3D printers. This invention allows for fewer printed supports during the manufacturing process, thereby reducing print time for techniques including fused deposition modeling and stereolithography. The supports come a standardized size, similar to...
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Medical devices
Micro-electronics
Rapid prototyping
Abstract
USC researchers have developed a low-cost, multi-material 3D printer that achieves high resolution, versatile materials, and high printing speeds at a projected cost of less than $6,000 per machine. This allows organizations of all sizes to benefit. The technology hopes to democratize...
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Stereolithography 3D printing
Abstract
USC researchers have developed a novel SLA approach that uses highly removable water-based support structures during 3D printing. A top-down thermoelectric cooling device is used to freeze water into solid ice that surrounds the layered part assembly. A novel vacuum device sufficiently controls the ice surface...
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Additive manufacturing
Microscale surface modification
Abstract
USC inventors have developed a point-based and line-based computer numerical controlled accumulation method for printing on a pre-existing object. This process has been extended to enable printing on objects immersed in a liquid resin. The approach uses a dynamically controlled...
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Additive manufacturing
Stereolithography
3D printing of large objects with small features
Abstract
USC researchers have developed a 3D printing technology that significantly improves on current techniques in terms of speed and resolution. This technology allows to dynamically vary the beam spot size to optimize the manufacture of parts...
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