I was fortunate to conduct a phone interview with prolific inventor and serial entrepreneur Carbon3D CEO Joseph DeSimone recently. Carbon3D made a splash in the technology world in March when DeSimone unveiled and demonstrated the start-up's seemingly game-changing 3D printing technology, Continuous Liquid Interface Production, or CLIP, at the TED 2015 conference, while simultaneously CLIP appeared as the cover story in the journal Science.
Briefly, CLIP harnesses UV light and oxygen to "grow" polymer parts continuously at speeds 25 to 100 times faster than the leading 3D printing technologies. Additionally, CLIP can produce 3D-printed objects that have a smoother surface finish than conventionally 3D-printed parts and a structural integrity on par with injection-molded objects, according to Carbon3D. You can read more about the process here.
CLIP's generating much buzz because it has the potential to disrupt the global manufacturing sector, as speed, surface quality, structural integrity, and materials capabilities are the key hurdles that have been holding 3D printing back from moving beyond prototyping and select, short-run production applications into a greater array of manufacturing applications.
To read more, click here.