The application of D printing is growing at a dizzying rate. Recently, a new strategy combining plastic, 3D printing, and electroplating can easily generate complex research and development instruments for manipulating each molecule.
Researcher Andeas Osterwalder used 3D printing to create a molecular beam splitter using plastic, and then electroplated it with nickel to make the instrument look fine and delicate, with mechanical strength and conductivity meeting experimental requirements.
Osterwalder and his colleagues published their research paper in the latest issue of the journal Applied Physics Research. 3D printing manufacturer Formlabs Berlin forwarded their paper on their marketing materials. Osterwalder sent an email from his office at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, Switzerland, stating, "This provides infinite possibilities for our various experiments. Previous experiments had to conduct various experiments to explore their possibilities. With the emergence of 3D printing, we were free to design and produce whatever structure was needed
Oswaldo stated that he spent over a week constructing a molecular beam separator, including CAD engineering and moving 3D parts into and out of the electroplating room. Galvotec, headquartered in Svendorf, Switzerland, provides electroplating services.
If it takes several months to produce the same parts in the EPFL institutional laboratory, in addition, the molecular beam separator contains separate conductive and insulating components, making alignment and installation more difficult.
The cost of 3D printing is approximately $50, mainly due to the cost of resin. Additionally, the cost of electroplating is approximately several hundred dollars. The molecular beam separator is approximately one foot long and includes three 3D printed sections. Formlabs' Form2 printer has a resolution of 0.025mm, which is sufficient to ensure accurate dimensions of the parts even after electroplating. The separator can withstand harsh conditions because it can separate molecular beams under meteorological conditions without causing composite molecules to come into contact with the separator surface. Experiments are usually conducted under absolute zero temperature conditions, and when manipulating molecules during the experiment, the voltage of the metal structure can reach up to 10000 volts.
Formlabs' Form2 printer is priced affordable and competes with customers with higher priced SLAs. Its resolution can reach 25 micrometers on the Z-axis, and 100 micrometers on the X-axis and Y-axis. All 3D printing resins in Formlabs are designed internally. At present, it has 15 types of resin in stock, which have various characteristics from biocompatibility to engineering performance. All resins are cured by UV irradiation after printing.
Amos Dudley, an application engineer at Formlabs, said in a telephone interview from his Boston office that if 3D printed parts are to be electroplated, they must be very smooth. The minimum thickness of electroplated metal (usually nickel or copper) is 5 microns. A high metal thickness will increase the structural strength, but it will sacrifice the details of the parts.
Form2 was launched in 2015 and is a professional grade 3D flat printing printer with much higher resolution compared to low-cost melt deposition molding printers or metal sintering printers.
Durable and sturdy surfaces can be plated with nickel, EMI shielding, and thermal conductivity, but those with low structural strength can be plated with copper, as Sean Wise, president of Repliform, a large electroplating company in Baltimore, explained to us. Repliform has been electroplated for many 3D printed parts in aerospace applications, and many small electrical enclosures in aerospace applications require EMI protection. There are also some parts in the aerospace industry that require nickel to provide wear resistance on the surface.
Repliform processes tens of thousands of parts annually. Wise stated that basic electroplating generally increases the cost of 3D printed parts by 50%. He and his wife and partner have been providing electroplating services for SLA parts since 2001, with annual revenue growth ranging from 10% to 15%. He explained, "We did not intentionally reduce costs." In addition to costs, the combination of metal and plastic is opening up to new markets. He said, "People can use digital photography to create a statue of themselves, and after electroplating, it looks like a bronze statue
Formlabs was established in 2011 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This enterprise has now grown to 300 people and has branches in the United States, Germany, Japan, and China.
