Rapid Prototyping Studio MEEN 3D Printing

The J. Mike Walker ’66 Department of Mechanical Engineering’s Rapid Prototyping Studio operates printers of two methods of additive manufacturing. The department possesses printers of the Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) type and one of the Stereolithography (SLA) type. FDM printers utilize a “hot glue gun” extrusion style, heating a plastic filament and forcing it through an extruder mounted on a Cartesian robot, which directs where the filament is deposited. Stereolithography (SLA) is an additive manufacturing process that works by focusing an ultraviolet (UV) laser on to a vat of photopolymer resin.