This article is the first in a series. The second article focuses on CLIP's materials capabilities and more.
I was fortunate to conduct a phone interview last week with a prolific inventor and serial entrepreneur, Carbon3D CEO Joseph DiSimone. Carbon3D made a splash in the tech world in mid-March, when DiSimone unveiled and demonstrated the company's seemingly game-changing 3D printing technology, Continuous Liquid Interface Production, or CLIP, at the TED 2015 conference, while simultaneously CLIP appeared as the cover story in Science magazine.
CLIP harnesses UV light and oxygen to "grow" polymer parts continuously at speeds 25 to 100 times faster than the leading 3D printing technologies. Additionally, CLIP can produce objects that have a smoother surface finish than conventionally 3D-printed parts and a structural consistency on par with injection-molded ones, according to Carbon3D.
CLIP is generating a lot of buzz because it has the potential to disrupt the global manufacturing sector. That's because speed, surface quality, structural integrity, and materials capabilities (the focus of the second article in this series) are key hurdles that have been holding 3D printing back from moving beyond prototyping and select, short-run production applications into a greater array of manufacturing applications.
Source: Carbon3D.
DiSimone said they knew they wanted to have the 3D-printed part rise out of a puddle of resin, just like T-1000 rises out of a puddle of liquid metal. From there, the brainstorming led to how CLIP accomplishes its Terminator -like feat: Through the use of a transparent, oxygen-permeable window that's something like a contact lens, CLIP technology controls the exposure of UV light and oxygen to the UV-light-curable resin. The UV light solidifies some parts of the resin while the oxygen prevents the layer bordering the window -- the "dead zone" -- from solidifying. This process allows for the object to "grow" from the bottom up in a continuous process.
After the basic idea came to them, Ermoshkin built a prototype -- "something he's really good at," commented DiSimone, who then added that the inventors knew they were on to something during the initial trial run.
During his mention of the patent search, DiSimone -- who has 150 issued patents -- stated that "patents drive innovation." Indeed, without patents, there would be much less incentive for individuals and entities to innovate, as it would be foolish to spend resources if others were allowed to profit from the get-go.
Building upon past innovations
CLIP technology is similar to stereolithography, or SLA, which was invented in the mid-1980s by Chuck Hull, who then went on to found 3D Systems. The key difference is that SLA pauses between producing each layer, whereas CLIP operates continuously, thanks to the oxygen-enriched "dead zone."
What might seem like a small tweak to an existing technology results in changing 3D printing from a mechanical process into a tunable photochemical one. This results in a greatly revved-up process -- as DiSimone demonstrated at TED -- and, according to Carbon3D, greater structural consistency of the printed object, and the opening up of a wider range of materials possibilities.
The signs of a successful CEO?
DiSimone has straddled the academic and private sectors for almost his entire career. He's clearly driven to apply what he learns in his DiSimone Research Group to solve real-world issues. He's already successfully done so multiple times, having leveraged his polymer chemistry expertise to create such diverse products as an environmentally friendly dry-cleaning solvent and nanocarriers for vaccines. These inventions led to spin-off companies Micell Technologies and Liquidia Technologies, respectively.
It struck me that DiSimone's telling one of his co-inventors to run a patent search for specific keywords before even discussing starting a 3D printing company seemed a shrewd, practical approach to maximize potential returns while limiting wasting resources. This trait should serve him well in his CEO role.
While DiSimone and Samulski are chemists, physicist Ermoshkin rounds out the founding trio. DiSimone's a big believer that there can be wonderful synergy among people with different strengths and backgrounds. This belief put into practice at Carbon3D should help the company as it scales up to compete in an increasingly competitive space.
My thanks to Joe DiSimone, as well as Kristine Relja and Jennifer Gentrup, who coordinated this interview.
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The article Carbon3D's CEO Discusses Its Breakthrough CLIP 3D Printing Tech originally appeared on Fool.com.
Beth McKenna has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends and owns shares of 3D Systems, Proto Labs, and Stratasys. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days . We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy .
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