A 3D printer with a hybrid printing head consisting of two devices has been created at Vyatka State University (VyatSU). It allows layer-by-layer printing of a "shell" (frame), the university's press service reported.
In our device, the process of preparing the mixture and feeding it to the printing area is combined with the process of forming the "shell". This allows us to automate the multi-material printing process and significantly reduce printing time, completely eliminating manual labor.
The device will open up new opportunities for multi-material printing and the creation of fundamentally new models of complex shapes. This refers to multi-colored products with different surface textures, physical, mechanical, and chemical properties.
This allows a materials engineer to create completely different models, experiment, and "grow" products with gradient material properties, for example, with gradient electrical conductivity, where one part of the component is an electrical insulator, while another part of the component, on the contrary, conducts electric current.
The developers plan to create a line of devices of different sizes. The largest printer will allow the creation of machine bodies and frames. Smaller models will begin printing products using food materials.
Earlier, www1.ru reported that a new housing printing project is being developed in Tomsk.
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