Hasta La Ideas

If you are a fresh industrial design student, you’ll most likely have your first try at 3D printing this semester or this year. And while a lot of focus has been on the printers themselves, it’s equally important and fascinating to look at the materials we can use.

There are surprisingly few limitations placed on the kinds of materials used to print 3D objects. As additive manufacturing develops into a widespread practice it’s important to focus on the potential of the ingredients used. Here’s a rundown of the popular and the strange.

The most commonly used materials today are the thermoplastics (polymers.) Typically the polymers are in the form of filament made from resins.

– Acrylonitile butadiene styrene (ABS) also known as lego plastic, is perhaps one of the most commonly used plastics in 3D printing.
– Polylactic acid (PLA) has the flexibility to be hard or soft and is starting to gain popularity. There is also a soft form of PLA that is rubbery and flexible.
– Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) is a dissolvable material that is used as a support, that then gets washed away once the object is created.
– Polycarbonate requires high-temperature nozzle design and is in the proof-of-concept stage.

Plastics can be mixed with carbon fiber to make them stronger without adding weight.

There are also several metals that can be used for additive manufacturing:

– Steel
– Stainless steel
– Titanium
– Gold
– Silver

Several types of processes work with metals and metal alloys. These are direct metal laser sintering (DMLS), electron-beam melting, selective laser melting (SLM). SLM can worth with plastics, ceramics abut also metal powders, and can produce metal objects that have strikingly similar properties as those of traditionally manufactured metals. (We previously posted videos of each of the methods listed above.)

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