Horizontal resolution was probably the easiest thing to fix. My programing background came in really handy for this part. I learned how to program the PLCs and within a few months I made this frame. This frame has a resolution of about +-0.05 inch which is pretty astounding since before this the best that I saw there was a resolution of about +-7 inches.
The horizontal and vertical line / layer adhesion was tricky due to some inherent complications in the system (namely dust, collected droplets of kicking resin, major shifts in temperature etc). In this picture though you can see how nice and straight we finally got the lines. The vertical layers proved to be a much more challenging problem than the horizontal lines.
Layer adhesion was tricky because you had to take into account the mixing of the powder and fluid as well as penetration depth. If you penetrated too deep then your resolution was shot; too little and the part would fall apart; somewhere in-between and you ended up a part that stuck together but was filled full of huge voids. When you also factor in that the fluid you are trying to model is also chemically changing through out this process it gives you a nightmare of variables to contend with.
When you grind off the top layer this is what the material looks like. It is very smooth with some small air or dry pockets but over all a very solid material.
Pulling this frame out of a huge tray of glass dust gave me a feeling of success that fueled me to continue to push the boundary's of what is/isn't possible.
gLike
Fiber Glass 3D Printer
When I left the PhD program at the UW I accepted a job engineering the world largest 3D printer and the first 3D printer in the world to print in fiber glass. (Now there are much larger machines but back then the largest machine I had seen was one that was roughly 2ft x 2ft x 1ft this one was more than 3 times that size). When I started there were two major issues with the machine. First problem was layer adhesion horizontally and vertically. The second problem was resolution.
