International Journal of Extreme Manufacturing, Volume. 6, Issue 3, 35004(2024)

Vibration-assisted vat photopolymerization for pixelated-aliasing-free surface fabrication

Han Xu1...2, Renzhi Hu3, Shuai Chen3, Junhong Zhu3, Chi Zhou4, and Yong Chen1,23,* |Show fewer author(s)
Author Affiliations
  • 1Center for Advanced Manufacturing, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90007, United States of America
  • 2Daniel J. Epstein Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, University of Southern California,Los Angeles, CA 90089, United States of America
  • 3Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles,CA 90089, United States of America
  • 4Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, University of Buffalo, Buffalo, NY 14260, United States of America
  • show less

    Mask image projection-based vat photopolymerization (MIP-VPP) offers advantages like low cost, high resolution, and a wide material range, making it popular in industry and education.Recently, MIP-VPP employing liquid crystal displays (LCDs) has gained traction, increasingly replacing digital micromirror devices, particularly among hobbyists and in educational settings,and is now beginning to be used in industrial environments. However, LCD-based MIP-VPP suffers from pronounced pixelated aliasing arising from LCD’s discrete image pixels and its direct-contact configuration in MIP-VPP machines, leading to rough surfaces on the 3D-printed parts. Here, we propose a vibration-assisted MIP-VPP method that utilizes a microscale vibration to uniformize the light intensity distribution of the LCD-based mask image on VPP’s building platform. By maintaining the same fabrication speed, our technique generates a smoother, non-pixelated mask image, reducing the roughness on flat surfaces and boundary segments of 3D-printed parts. Through light intensity modeling and simulation, we derived an optimal vibration pattern for LCD mask images, subsequently validated by experiments. We assessed the surface texture, boundary integrity, and dimensional accuracy of components produced using the vibration-assisted approach. The notably smoother surfaces and improved boundary roughness enhance the printing quality of MIP-VPP, enabling its promising applications in sectors like the production of 3D-printed optical devices and others.

    Tools

    Get Citation

    Copy Citation Text

    Han Xu, Renzhi Hu, Shuai Chen, Junhong Zhu, Chi Zhou, Yong Chen. Vibration-assisted vat photopolymerization for pixelated-aliasing-free surface fabrication[J]. International Journal of Extreme Manufacturing, 2024, 6(3): 35004

    Download Citation

    EndNote(RIS)BibTexPlain Text
    Save article for my favorites
    Paper Information

    Received: Oct. 27, 2023

    Accepted: --

    Published Online: Sep. 11, 2024

    The Author Email: Chen Yong (yongchen@usc.edu)

    DOI:10.1088/2631-7990/ad2e14

    Topics