Innovation in 3D printing through arc welding technology

Author: Curtis Silver
Published: December 30, 2013 at 2:53 pm ShareTweet

2013 was marked with great strides made in the 3D printing field. Various labs and companies brought a certain level of innovation to an evolving technology; Sigma Labs making the latest headline.

The company is making a name for itself in the 3D printing market on account of its advanced and real time inspection systems for 3D metal printing.

3D metal printing is considered an advanced manufacturing technology, which makes use of advances made in conventional 3D printing. With the rising public interest and mass online exposure, this form of printing is going under metamorphosis at a rapid rate.

Arc Welding Technology

Sigma Labs in collaboration with Michigan Technological University would be working on developing a cost effective 3D metal printer that will use arc welding technology.

The innovation would be a 3D printer that has near-net shape parts requiring a 3- or 5- axis machining to arrive at the final form. Such a target is unprecedented and would revolutionize the technology.

This industry/academia relationship came to the fore when Sigma Labs became interested in the open source 3D printer Michigan Tech developed. Arc welding has been an important tool for fabrication of steel structures, and its usage in printing would definitely bring a lot of change.

Sigma Labs is adding its experience of advanced sensing and process control to generate optimized gas metal arc welding. Also, Sigma is contributing to the project with its patented “PrintRite3D” quality control and sensing technology.

Previous models that are commercially available routinely use a ‘fused deposition modeling’ and are widely used due to their open sourced nature.

Expansion in Usage

The arc welding technology means that 3D printing consumer market can look at cost effective methods. Newer designs are being tested, which in itself is an innovation. Researchers have advanced to such levels that they can print 3D eye cells.

Continued on the next page     Page1   2 About this article Article Author: Curtis Silver

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