Rapid Prototype Blog

Archive for November, 2011

How It’s Made: 3D Metal Printing (Courtesy of Ex One)

Have you always wanted to understand 3D printing? Well…we’ve thought about that and have made an animation showing you how 3D printing works.

There are actually several 3D printing technologies and this animation shows you the Selective Laser Sintering process from start to finish. With Selective Laser Sintering a fine powder is laid down. The laser then hardens the powder that will become the very bottom layer of your object. The rest of the powder remains in powder form. A new layer of powder is applied and the process repeats itself. Your model is then lifted out from all the loose powder and cleaned.

Watch revolutionary new 3D Printer technology in action at the Technology Sandbox at SIGGRAPH 2011, the largest conference in the world for 3D animation, computer graphics and new visual arts technology. In this demo, the 3D Printer is the MakerBot Thing-O-Matic.