3D printer aims to challenge injection moulding on high volume production

The machine, being built at Sheffield University, will be able to produce plastic parts three times larger and 100 times faster than existing comparable 3D printing, or additive manufacturing (AM) machines.

Crucially, it is also the first AM device capable of producing parts as cheaply as conventional injection moulding techniques, according to its developer Prof Neil Hopkinson in the Faculty of Engineering at Sheffield University.

The technology is based on a process known as high speed sintering (HSS), developed by Hopkinson while at Loughborough University, in which a polymer powder is selectively fused together layer by layer, to produce a specific shape.

But unlike existing AM techniques, in which a laser is used to fuse the powder, HSS uses an infra-red-absorbing ink. This ink is printed onto the powder bed in the desired pattern, and an infra-red lamp is shone onto the powder, said Hopkinson.

“The energy from the lamp is absorbed by the ink, which gets hot, melting the particles that are lying underneath,” he said.