things: it slices your digital object into thin horizontal slices, or
layers, like a deli worker slices cheese from a large cheese block.
The file format then provides instructions to the hardware—the
3D printer—for how to add each layer on top of the previous layer
so the printer can build the physical object you designed on your
computer. Depending on
the 3D printing process, the
printer will squeeze melted
material out of a nozzle (like
a baker squeezing icing out
of a cake-decorating tube).
Or a laser will harden and
deposit material layer by
layer (like chocolate sauce
that instantly hardens when it
hits your ice cream).
Like cooking, 3D printing relies on a set of
instructions to create a final product using
specific materials and tools. And like cooking,
it is something you can do at home.
THE PROCESS
The FDM process falls in the
squeezer category. SLA and
SLS processes are hardeners.
(Reminder: fused deposition
modeling, FDM, is also
known as fused filament
fabrication, FFF, when the
process is used by a non-
Stratasys company.) FDM
uses strands of brightly
colored thermoplastic filaments coiled around spools like thick
thread. The printer melts the filaments strand by strand, and the
nozzle deposits, or squeezes, the melted filament onto the printer
H O W I T W O R K S
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