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Craig Blue, ORNL’s Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy Program Office Director (left) and Bob Vanderhoff, President & CEO, Magnum Venus Products with the thermoset printer at DOE’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility at ORNL.
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The snowboard mold at IACMI – The Composites Institute, produced by the world’s first large-scale thermoset 3D printer co-developed by ORNL and MVP. Photo Credit: IACMI – The Composites Institute
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Craig Blue, ORNL’s Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy Program Office Director (left) and Bob Vanderhoff, President & CEO, Magnum Venus Products with the thermoset printer at DOE’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility at ORNL.
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The snowboard mold at IACMI – The Composites Institute, produced by the world’s first large-scale thermoset 3D printer co-developed by ORNL and MVP. Photo Credit: IACMI – The Composites Institute
An innovative prototype utilizing technologies engineered at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has been produced by the world’s first large-scale thermoset 3D printer. The prototype, developed by students for making snowboards, was made possible by a collaboration between ORNL, Magnum Venus Products (MVP) and IACMI-The Composites Institute, and debuted during JEC World in Paris. JEC World is the leading international composites show.
Printing thermosets on a large scale has been virtually impossible until now but the prototype has enabled new possibilities in the performance and integrity of 3D printed components.
While 3D printers have been around for years, the additive manufacturing industry has needed a cost-effective solution that could print structures and molds. MVP engaged with ORNL to create a 3D printer capable of printing large-scale thermosets, chemistries that are cured from a prepolymer or resin. This first of kind thermoset printer was co-developed by ORNL and installed by MVP at the Department of Energy (DOE’s) Manufacturing Demonstration Facility at ORNL in Spring 2018.
“This thermoset printer enables manufacturers to customize durable molds to withstand high temperature processing and repeated use, breaking limitations of traditional methods and providing freedom to innovate”
The printer features a state-of-the-art gantry system tailored to the application that can dramatically increase the productivity of additive manufacturing. The configuration allows the printer to operate while pre- and post-processing operations are performed on an additional print bed outside of the machine. The benefits include rapid prototyping molds, rapid mold building, and creativity with an all-new material for cutting-edge companies. It also includes the ability to print new structures with materials more tailored to strength than traditional thermoplastics.
ORNL’s collaboration with MVP and IACMI, sponsored by DOE’s Advanced Manufacturing Office in the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, is an important step in accelerating the pace with which new technologies can be successfully commercialized, leading to a larger range of applications and performance criteria for additively manufactured components, while creating job growth in the US. Overall, the composites industry is experiencing heightened interest in 3D printing, with additive printing for molds and tool building proving to be fastest growing segments.
The MDF is supported by the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO). AMO supports early-stage applied research and development of new materials, information and processes that improve American manufacturing’s energy efficiency, as well as platform technologies for manufacturing clean energy products.
ORNL is managed by UT-Battelle for the Department of Energy's Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. DOE’s Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit https://energy.gov/science.
