Additive Manufacturing: An Introductory Overview (4 of 4)

This is the fourth and final article in our series. It follows the first, second and third recently published articles written to give readers a better understanding of the various technologies used in additive manufacturing.
As mentioned in the first article, the ASTM F2792-12a standard entitled “Standard Terminology for Additive Manufacturing Technologies” divides the different technologies into seven categories. This article will focus on the last three (see grey font) out of the seven described in the standard, which are as follows:

Categories 1 and 2 (black font) were presented in Article 2, while categories 3 and 4 (yellow font) were outlined in Article 3. Article 1 provided an overview of the additive manufacturing field and described the content of all four articles. For each category, you’ll find a short explanation of the principle, the class of materials used, the names of the main companies selling the machines and what they call the process.

5. Binder jetting

Procedure in which a liquid, acting as an adhesive, is added selectively to bind material in powder form.
Materials: starch, cellulose, plaster, sand, metal

Main companies and procedures

ZCorp (acquired by 3D Systems)
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ExOne (division of ProMetal)

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VoxelJet GmbH

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6- Sheet lamination

Procedure in which sheets of material are laminated together to form an object.
Materials: paper, acetate, metal

Main companies and procedures

Mcor Technologies
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SolidModel USA (Solido model)
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Fabrisonic: AUM (Additive Ultrasonic Manufacturing)
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7- Vat photopolymerization

Procedure in which a photosensitive resin, stored in a vat, is selectively polymerized using a light source.
Materials: photosensitive resins

Main companies and procedures

3D Systems – SLA ® (Stereolithography Apparatus); laser and mirror galvanometer (iPro8000, ProX 950 models)
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3D Systems – FTI (Film Transfer Imaging); projector
(ProJet1000-1500 model)
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Envisiontec – (Perfactory and Ultra models);  DLP Projector (Digital Light Projector)
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While this classification may not be perfect, it is useful for clarifying which types of machines share similar technologies. Let’s hope that it will help facilitate communication between different players in the field.