(76d) The Delicate Interplay between Light, Interfaces and Design: The Complex Dance That Allows 3D Printing to Scale to Manufacturing

The production of polymeric products relies largely on age-old molding techniques. In this talk, I will describe a breakthrough in additive manufacturing—3D printing—referred to as Continuous Liquid Interface Production (CLIP) technology (Science 2015). CLIP, and its recently introduced cousin injection CLIP (iCLIP; Science Advances 2022), embody a convergence of advances in software, hardware, and materials to bring the digital revolution to the design and manufacturing of polymeric products. CLIP uses software-controlled chemistry to produce commercial quality parts rapidly and at scale by capitalizing on the principle of oxygen-inhibited photopolymerization to generate a continual liquid interface of uncured resin between a forming part and a printer’s exposure window. Instead of printing layer-by-layer, this allows layerless parts to ‘grow’ from a pool of resin, formed by light. Compatible with a wide range of polymers, CLIP opens major opportunities for innovative products across diverse industries. Previously unmakeable products are already manufactured at scale with CLIP, including the large-scale production of running shoes by Adidas (Futurecraft 4D); mass-customized football helmets by Riddell; the world’s first FDA-approved 3D printed dentures; and numerous parts in automotive, consumer electronics, and medicine. At Stanford, we are pursuing new advances including new multi-material printing approaches, recyclable materials, materials for advanced ceramics, and the design of a high-resolution printer. High resolution 3D printing, combined with the ability to fabricate free-form negative spaces, open up new applications in microelectronics, “digital dust”—precision particles having un-moldable geometries (Nature 2024, in press), and drug/vaccine delivery devices including novel microneedle designs as a potent vaccine delivery platform and for the sampling of interstitial fluids for health monitoring and the early detection of disease.