surFACe emItting Laser array for addITive mAnufacTuring Of theRmoplastics (FACILITATOR)

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Additive manufacturing (AM) is an enabling technology and is the future of manufacturing in a digital, local, low turnaround time, personalised world.This new field has the potential to revolutionise many aspects of human life. The materials which can be manufactured using this process can significantly reduce waste during the manufacturing process, as well as reduce the weight of parts shipped (reducing carbon emission for key sectors such as aerospace). These systems can also produce bespoke parts for medical applications, giving improved quality of life.Direct digital manufacturing, as part of industry 4.0, will become a future norm, providing custom parts in a timely manner with reduced environmental impact.Selective laser sintering (SLS), is a leading AM process. Current SLM systems repeatedly deposit a layer of material powder on a bed, then a high-power laser is scanned over the surface, melting only areas which require material deposition on the layer below, akin to writing with a pen. This is repeated layer by layer, building a complete 3D structure. The SLM systems are expensive, and \>60% of the cost of the parts manufactured in this way are time dependant, holding back the deployment of these systems. We have developed a method to massively increase the write speed of these systems (increasing the speed by 10x), which reduces the cost of parts manufactured by 4x.We propose the development of a rapid 3D printing technology based on semiconductor laser technology. The novelty in this work is the development of new laser systems which will allow an entire layer to be written in with a speed increase of 10x, which equates to a reduction in cost of part production of 4x.This will do for additive manufacturing what the printing press did for publishing.