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Comment by bawolff | Hacker News Reader

That's cool and all, but i don't see how you can justify this as being more "3d" than traditional 3d printing.

Other responses have mentioned that this can print without support structures, though, that feature alone is not unique to this design. SLS or the HP Multijet printers layer whole beds of powder and then fuse selectively, so in effect, the powder is the support structure. This approach could conceivably do the same type of construction in arbitrary space. (within a resin bed)

Exactly. The firm I work for does a lot of 3D printing using the HP Multijet Fusion systems and we do not require custom support structures for anything. As you point out, the powder bed is the support.

This method can be much faster than others, because all the resin starts out in its final position, and only the laser light moves.

The article contrasts it with another otherwise similar method that has to go very slowly because it injects so much energy per voxel the resin would boil if they went faster.

As an example of how this differs, with traditional 3d printing you could not print a reasonably large ∩ shape (aka set intersection or cap) without support or help structures because the beams would fall over before you're done. With the new approach you can as the resulting object is created "in place" as opposed to layer by layer from bottom up.

Almost all 3D printer print 2D layers on top of eachother. Maybe Carbon is the only exception because the continuously morph the layers in the Z-direction. The end result is a 3D model, but it is printed in 2D.

This method is more 3D because you can print at any point in space.

To break it down further, the 2D layers are laid down as a bunch of 1D structures when using the popular filament extruders.

I have never heard of this "Carbon" method.

Carbon is a brand. They use a vat for resin that lets air molecules through.

Because you can print things like a table in its normal orientation.

That's kind of a non-sequitur though. A 3D printed table is no less 3D if you had to print it upside down. And who even has a table they haven't flipped over at least once?

Not all shapes are flat on one side and have no hollows. Most shapes do not match that criterion. So, on most 3D printers, they have to add sacrificial support structures.

Also, most 3D printers add material a layer at a time, which is very slow. This one starts out with all the resin at its final position, so only the light moves.

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