LaserStacker: Making 3D objects with laser cutting and welding
Recently, a team of engineers from Germany developed an interesting machine, the LaserStacker, which uses the basic principles of laminate manufacturing, but the acrylic sheet is made into a complex 3D shape by cutting and welding.
According to Xiaobian, this machine was invented by the Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI) in Germany. The Institute is part of the University of Potsdam and has long been known for developing very interesting high-tech innovations. Among the team members are Udayan Umapathi, Hsiang-Ting Chen, Stefanie Mueller, Ludwig Wall, Anna Seufert and Patrick Baudisch.
According to these developers, LaserStacker essentially wants to add more manufacturing power to the laser cutting machine, the main equipment of any maker space. “Laser cutters are used for rapid prototyping because they are very fast. But they can only make planar two-dimensional objects. To create non-planar objects, one way is to cut the objects horizontally, then stack and Bonded together," they said. But this usually means a lot of manual work, and it loses the meaning of rapid manufacturing. The purpose of LaserStacker is to fully automate this process. “Our core idea is to make laser cutting machines not only cut and cut, but also to weld,†they said.
So how does it work? Well, users only need to put a bunch of acrylic sheets into the cutting machine. “In the process, the LaserStacker is formed by cutting each layer and welding the layers together by melting the material at the contact faces and repairing the unwanted cuts on a higher number of layers. When the user is laser When the object was taken out of the cutting machine, it was assembled," Udayan Umapathi explained. The following picture shows a fairly simple and clever process by making a pair of scissors.
However, before doing this, the user needs to design the LaserStacker editor (actually an extension of SketchUp) and output it to the LaserStacker. “In order to make scissors, the user needs to put the appropriate number of acrylic sheets (here 3 pieces) in the laser cutter, then load the files onto the control panel of the laser cutter and perform the job,†the team explained.
This machine cleverly combines CAD design with laser-cut acrylic, and the entire process is completely automated and impressive. In some ways, LaserStacker can also be an effective complement to laser cutters and 3D printers . The makers efficiently complete the manufacture of some special objects, as shown in the video below:
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