07-25-2019: Adrian Bowyer presented the concept of an "Electric 3D Printer" creating objects in "Just a Few Seconds".
It was released under an open-source license and prevent it from being patented.
On July 25, 2019, Adrian Bowyer, the legendary creator of the RepRap project and one of the greatest innovators in the history of 3D printing, presented a new concept of AM technology called the "Electric 3D Printer." The concept involves using electric current to polymerize a liquid plastic monomer in such a way that it forms a three-dimensional object of a specified shape within seconds.
Unfortunately, at this moment, the work has not progressed beyond theoretical research. But it's also worth mentioning that one of the key reasons for publishing this concept was to release it under an open-source license and prevent it from being patented!
The method is derived from three other techniques: 3D printing using inverse CT, developed by researchers at Berkeley and Lawrence Livermore, the open-source method of electric scanning 3D for 3D reconstruction called Spectra, and electropolymerization.
Bowyer's device would work as follows:
the polymer would be poured into a container serving as the working chamber
the walls of the container would be covered with a dense mesh of electrodes
based on the geometry provided in an .STL file, the computer controlling the 3D printing process would pass electric current through the polymer, released by the electrodes, selectively hardening it
the device would have no moving parts, and according to Bowyer, it could be successfully printed entirely on a standard FDM/FFF 3D printer, assuming one of the filaments could conduct electricity.
Bowyer documents the project's progress on GitHub. Unfortunately, the last entry is from July 23, 2021. At this moment, it seems that the project has been abandoned?
However, the publication of the project had another important purpose. Adrian Bowyer is a proponent of the open-source movement. He described his intentions in the first publication on the subject: "The primary purpose of this blog post is to get my Electric 3D Printing idea out as open-source, and to establish it as prior art so that it cannot be patented."
So, everyone, feel free to use it!
Source: www.github.com