China3D printingNetwork August 6th, the Fraunhofer Institute network in Germany continues to advance3D printingThe latest technology, this time is Stratasys PolyJet. The Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics (IGD) has optimized its universal 3D printing driver Cuttlefish for use with PolyJet, further improving the printing process to achieve more realistic printing.
Fraunhofer IPA is dedicated to automation, Fraunhofer IWS is dedicated to lasers, and Fraunhofer IGD is an institute dedicated to applied vision computing. This includes the development of Cuttlefish, which can be used by any 3D printer to improve the appearance, shape, etc. of objects.
In 2017, Cuttlefish began to support PolyJet systems through the GrabCAD Voxel Print interface. As Stratasys continues to improve its inkjet technology to 3D print up to eight materials in one print, Fraunhofer IGD has enhanced its software by optimizing existing algorithms and adding new ones. In turn, the printed matter has better geometry and color accuracy.
PolyJet involves a lot of information, and achieving an accurate representation of a 3D model is not just a hardware issue. Cuttlefish minimizes the memory consumption of complex models in a few seconds by calculating only the information needed for printing at a specific time.
Fraunhofer IGD’s Cuttlefish® can process multiple printed materials simultaneously and accurately reproduce geometric shapes and colors, including translucency and fine shadow transitions. Using Cuttlefish® printed false eyes on the Stratasys J750 3D printer. (© Fraunhofer IGD)
Philipp Urban, head of IGD 3D printing technology at the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics, said: “When it comes to mass production optimization, specific color requirements or translucency, nesting or individual color calibration, this is our entry point. .. “Our partnership is designed for the long-term and aims to enable Stratasys customers to take full advantage of the technical potential of their printers. “
Urban and his team have been working on the development of multi-material 3D printing software since 2014, aiming to replicate geometric shapes and colors as accurately as possible. In turn, Cuttlefish has played an important role in the quality of countless PolyJet prints. Universities can rely on the software to explore their own research by integrating their own methods and software into Cuttlefish, without the need to program the entire platform.
In order to animate the facial expressions of the characters in Missing Link, LAIKA used multiple Stratasys J750 3D printers, combined with the Cuttlefish® 3D printer driver, to create 106,000 highly detailed color 3D faces. (© Lycra)
As evidence of the quality presented by the latest Cuttlefish optimization, Fraunhofer IGD highlighted LAIKA Studios and its work for the stop-motion film Missing Link, which won the Golden Globe Award. The company 3D printed more than 106,000 facial expressions using Cuttlefish and PolyJet. Due to the complexity of stop motion animation, each model needs to match the exact shadow of the previous model.
“Since the first film Coraline produced at LAIKA, we have been using 3D printers in stop motion animation production. For our latest film Missing Link, we used Fraunhofer IGD technology because they can achieve unique color consistency and Geometric accuracy. By combining Cuttlefish software with Stratasys J750 series 3D printers, we are able to create the most complex color 3D printed surface ever,” said Brian McLean, LAIKA rapid prototyping director.
LAIKA may use the technology again in upcoming features, while Cuttlefish does any amount of behind-the-scenes work globally.
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