Speedy 3D Printer Takes Cues from 'Terminator'

Startup Carbon3D rose from obscurity this week—just like one of its own 3D-printed creations.

On stage at the TED conference in Vancouver, the California-based company introduced "game-changing" polymer-based 3D printing.

Carbon3D's CLIP (Continuous Liquid Interface Production) technology uses light and oxygen to "grow" objects from a pool of resin, instead of printing them layer by layer. Think Robert Patrick emerging from a puddle of liquid metal as the T-1000 in Terminator 2.

The mind-blowing process promises print jobs that are 25 to 100 times faster to do than conventional 3D printing, which can drive a person mad watching an additive manufacturing machine slowly build the outline of a Companion Cube.

"When we witnessed the CLIP process, we believed we had found a company that had invented a solution to speed, quality, and material selection," said Adam Grosser, Silver Lake Kraftwerk managing director and Carbon3D board member.

Existing 3D printing, as the startup pointed out, is basically just 2D printing over and over—a process that may take hours or days to fabricate a mechanically weak product.

"Current 3D printing technology has failed to deliver on its promise to revolutionize manufacturing," Carbon3D CEO Joseph DeSimone said in a statement. "Our CLIP technology offers the game-changing speed, consistent mechanical properties, and choice of materials required for complex commercial quality parts."

And it's a mesmerizing technique, which balances the interaction of UV light and oxygen to create a "dead zone" in the resin pool, allowing for photopolymerization.

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"If 3D printing hopes to break out of the prototyping niche it has been trapped in for decades, we need to find a disruptive technology that attacks the problem from a fresh perspective and addresses 3D printing's fundamental weaknesses," said Jim Goetz, Carbon3D board member.

Founded in 2013, Carbon3D has raised a total of $40 million to date via two rounds of funding, and intends to put that money to use manufacturing its futuristic technology.

For more, see 3D Printing: What You Need to Know, as well as our lineup of The Best 3D Printers.