JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #47 - March/April 2009 - 111

with the illuminating angle varying depending on where the laser irradiates. The MLS MicroLightSwitch® operates at 90°, which enables it to expose 40,000 light pixels at a time with high accuracy, thus offering the potential of much faster manufacturing of even very complex parts and making it fundamentally different from any existing stereolithography technology. More information Huntsman Advanced Materials – Years of experience in stereolithography With the ready availability of computer-aided design (CAD) data, Huntsman Advanced Materials saw the future for stereolithography materials and was one of the first companies to develop, more than 20 years ago, UVcurable materials that could be used to build 3D solid models and prototypes. Today, the next generation of RenShape® SL photopolymers is giving design engineers the opportunity to achieve unprecedented performance with a range of materials that combine a smooth finish with good dimensional stability. The Huntsman team that created the next generation of SL photopolymers worked with a team of leading engineers at their laboratories in Basel to develop Araldite® Digitalis, the next generation of rapid manufacturing equipment capable of producing large numbers of parts simultaneously at high speed and with high accuracy. Fig. 1: a: MLS MicroLightSwitch® module, b: SEM picture of one shutter. The MLS MicroLightSwitch® module enables micron-size spots of radiation to be selectively irradiated onto a resin surface via a shuttering mechanism built into silicon MEMS chips. The exposure system goes across the build in the x direction, the building plate goes down, and the recoater applies fresh resin onto the surface to build parts layer by layer. The key benefit of this system is that it can selectively expose a large surface area of radiation-curable resin via a computercontrolled micro-shutter system MLS MicroLightSwitch® is a transmissive technology, making it different from other MEMS systems. The accuracy of the MLS MicroLightSwitch® exposure system places it among the best in the world. Modular machine design The width of the build y axis is determined by the number of MLS MicroLightSwitch® modules used. Araldite® Digitalis consists of 16 modules which give a 370-mm y build. Fig. 3: The illuminating angle of Araldite® Digitalis through the MLS MicroLightSwitch® is always 90° to give pinpoint accuracy. Bigger or smaller build envelopes are obtained by increasing or decreasing the number of MLS MicroLightSwitch® modules, while still maintaining the same resolution and accuracy all over the building platform due to the 90° vertical exposure angle. Compared to lasers and reflective technologies, this transmissive modular exposure technology offers great flexibility in the resolution, the size and the complexity of the build. Fig. 2: The MLS MicroLightSwitch® provides greater accuracy for increased numbers of even very complex parts. No47 March-April 2009 / jec composites magazine 111

JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #47 - March/April 2009

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #47 - March/April 2009