Media Contacts:

Dr. Denis Cormier, 919/515-1549 or cormier@eos.ncsu.edu
Dr. Jim Taylor, 919/515-5187 or jtaylor@eos.ncsu.edu
Martha Brinson, Engineering Publications, 919/515-3394 or brinson@ncsu.edu

July 21, 2000

NC State Engineers Developing Desktop 3-D Laser Printer

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Engineers at North Carolina State University are developing a desktop laser printer that can be programmed to generate three-dimensional, full-color plastic models as easily as it prints paper documents.

The new 3-D laser printer could be a boon for small manufacturing firms, start-ups and entrepreneurs because it will give them a way to produce plastic prototypes and models at a much lower cost than using current prototyping technologies.

NC State has applied for a patent on the new technology.

The idea for the 3-D printer came to Dr. Denis Cormier, assistant professor of industrial engineering, during his lunchtime jogs across NC State’s Centennial Campus. The 1,000-acre research and development "technopolis" is home to dozens of small start-up companies and entrepreneurial R&D facilities, as well as university classrooms and laboratories.

Aware of how expensive it is for small manufacturers, entrepreneurs and industrial designers to produce plastic prototypes of products they hope to market, Cormier wondered if the ubiquitous laser printer could be programmed to generate three-dimensional, full-color plastic models as easily as it prints paper documents.

So he and colleague Dr. Jim Taylor, also an assistant professor of industrial engineering at NC State, set to work designing the software and hardware that would transform ordinary polystyrene printer toner into hard plastic 3-D objects.

Dr. Harvey West, a materials engineer at the university, contributed to the development of the technology.

One reason the professors' work has attracted the attention of big printer-industry companies such as Hewlett-Packard is that the cost to buy the prototype-producing printer would be very low. Machines currently used to produce plastic prototype parts -- collectively referred to as rapid prototyping processes -- are expensive, ranging from $60,000 to $500,000. With prices that high, only the largest companies can afford them, leaving smaller firms and one-person start-ups to rely on two-dimensional paper drawings or to come up with the cash to have someone else produce a prototype for them.

"A 3-D laser printer could likely be produced at a price point that would target the personal desktop market," says Cormier. "A desktop 3-D laser printer costing $3,000 or less would be quite attractive in numerous situations."

Here's how the Cormier-Taylor-West prototype process works: Although the image that a conventional laser printer produces appears to be flat, the toner deposited on the paper has a measurable thickness. If images are repeatedly printed one on top of the other, then the image gradually gets thicker and thicker, resulting in a solid piece of plastic.

Instead of using a paper tray, the prototype 3-D laser printer includes a platform to support the object. The product can be printed in full color by simply using a color laser printer engine, something that is prohibitively expensive using currently available rapid prototyping methods. Customers would buy the printer hardware and NC State-developed software, which tells the customers’ computer-aided design (CAD) program how to configure the object as the toner is applied to the build platform.

Cormier and Taylor said their process could create entirely new markets, including one in which children could conceivably download a CAD model of a race car or action figure from a company's Web site and then "print" it on their special laser printer equipped with the "slicing" software that Cormier and his team have developed.

"If you develop this type of capability, you can eventually get to the point where you can customize everything," said Taylor. "The term is 'mass customization.' One of the biggest costs to manufacture anything is the development of the tooling and fixtures. This process would help the manufacturer produce goods without that overhead. And with all of that capability, you could actually redistribute manufacturing from factories to homes or other sites. The long-term future is you can use this process to revolutionize manufacturing."

More traditional users of prototypes would likely be the first customers of the 3-D laser technology, though. They include mechanical designers at small- and medium-sized companies, industrial designers working on alternative designs, architects who want to produce inexpensive props for their mock-ups, and even students, such as art and science majors, looking to produce models for homework and projects.

Cormier and his colleagues are building a prototype of their machine. Eventually, they hope to license the process and software to a commercial manufacturer.

- wood - NOTE TO EDITORS: Dr. Harvey West, the third NC State engineering faculty member involved in this patent, can be reached at (919) 515-8527 or hawest@eos.ncsu.edu.

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