Lab 02 · Volumetric printing
Can light cure a whole object at once, with no layers at all?
In tomographic volumetric printing, a vial of photoresin turns while a projector sends a sequence of light patterns through it. Each point receives the sum of the light that crosses it, and the resin solidifies only where this dose passes a threshold. Computing the patterns is computed tomography run backwards: filter the projections of the object, then project them into the resin.
One constraint makes it hard: light cannot be negative. Clipping the negative part of the filtered patterns blurs the dose, so parts of the object and of its surroundings end up with similar doses, and the printable window shrinks. Optimising the patterns iteratively opens it again.
D(x) = Σθ Pθ(x · nθ), Pθ ≥ 0The dose is a sum of non-negative projections; the resin gels where it exceeds a threshold.
Try this: drop the number of angles to 8, then raise it. Switch to the wheel, whose holes are hard to keep dark, and press Optimise.
Model and assumptions +
2D slice of 96 × 96 pixels through the vial. Parallel, non-absorbed light; dose adds linearly and the resin gels above a single threshold, with no diffusion of radicals or oxygen. Initial patterns: ramp-filtered projections clipped at zero. Optimisation: 40 projected-gradient steps that raise the dose where the part is under-exposed and lower it where the surroundings are over-exposed, in the spirit of object-space optimisation.
- Kelly, B. E. et al. (2019). Volumetric additive manufacturing via tomographic reconstruction. Science 363(6431), 1075–1079. doi:10.1126/science.aau7114
- Loterie, D., Delrot, P., Moser, C. (2020). High-resolution tomographic volumetric additive manufacturing. Nature Communications 11, 852. doi:10.1038/s41467-020-14630-4
- Rackson, C. M. et al. (2021). Object-space optimization of tomographic reconstructions for additive manufacturing. Additive Manufacturing 48, 102367. doi:10.1016/j.addma.2021.102367
Lab 02 / Tomographic dose96 × 96 slice
Interactive with JavaScript: target shape, number of projection angles, threshold and pattern optimisation.
- Shape fidelity (IoU)
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- Dose window
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- Optimisation steps
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