Democratizing Metal 3D Printing: From Napkin Sketch to Metal Part

Plastic 3D printing has become widely accessible across education and industrial institutions, due to significant investment in reducing the technology’s processing complexity and costs. In stark contrast, the adoption of metal 3D printing has been limited to aerospace, medical, and automotive applications due to high cost, technical expertise requirements, operational safety concerns, and the need for expensive ancillary equipment. For example, unlike its plastic counterpart, metal 3D printing typically imposes a strong metallurgical bond between the printed part and the build plate, which requires a large cutting tool to separate the part from the build plate without causing any damage. 

Through fundamental research conducted at the VT DREAMS Lab, innovative processing techniques have been developed that reduce the complexity and variability inherent in metal 3D printing. One of the key advantages offered by these novel processing techniques is the ability to easily remove parts, mirroring the convenience enjoyed with plastic parts. The need for secondary equipment is removed, thus reducing the overall cost of the metal 3D printing process. This project also explores simplified software solutions to materialize conceptual ideas into actual parts. VT DREAMS Lab has developed in-house software that converts 2D drawings into precise printing toolpaths to fabricate these designs in 3D. This approach fosters broader accessibility by (1) removing the need for complex CAD modeling software with a steep learning curve and (2) enabling rapid facile removal of the part from the build plate without the need for secondary equipment. This allows any individual and any industry to transform a simple 2D sketch into a metal 3D part, thus paving way for the democratization of metal 3D printing. Through this project, our team will engage student designers (ranging from K-12 grades to senior-level students in  engineering and industrial design) to apply this processing innovation in order to gain understanding of its potential impact on design realization.