Propst Sarah, Mueller Jochen
Department of Civil and Systems Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Nat Commun. 2025 Jan 25;16(1):1035. doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-56140-1.
Direct Ink Writing, an extrusion-based 3D printing technique, has attracted growing interest due to its ability to process a broad range of materials and integrate multifunctional printheads with features such as shape-changing nozzles, in-situ curing, material switching, and material mixing. Despite these advancements, incorporating auxiliary controls into Geometry Code (G-Code), the standard programming language for these printers, remains challenging. G-Code's line-by-line execution requires auxiliary control commands to interrupt the print path motion, causing defects in the printed structure. We propose a generalizable time-based synchronization approach called Time Code (T-Code), which decouples auxiliary control from G-Code, enabling uninterrupted print path enrichment. We demonstrate the method's effectiveness with both high-end and affordable 3D printers by fabricating functional gradients and parallelizing printhead auxiliary devices for mass customization. Our method reduces defects, enhances print speed, and minimizes the mechanical burden on 3D printers, enabling the rapid creation of complex multimaterial structures.
直接墨水书写是一种基于挤压的3D打印技术，由于其能够处理多种材料，并将具有诸如形状变化喷嘴、原位固化、材料切换和材料混合等功能的多功能打印头集成在一起，因此越来越受到关注。尽管有这些进展，但将辅助控制集成到这些打印机的标准编程语言——几何代码（G代码）中仍然具有挑战性。G代码的逐行执行要求辅助控制命令中断打印路径运动，从而在打印结构中产生缺陷。我们提出了一种名为时间代码（T代码）的可推广的基于时间的同步方法，该方法将辅助控制与G代码分离，实现打印路径的不间断丰富。我们通过制造功能梯度并将打印头辅助设备并行化以进行大规模定制，在高端和经济型3D打印机上展示了该方法的有效性。我们的方法减少了缺陷，提高了打印速度，并将3D打印机的机械负担降至最低，从而能够快速创建复杂的多材料结构。
