Why This Photopolymer Developer Wants Prototyping to Go “Massless”

3D printing transformed the speed of physical prototyping, opening up avenues of innovation that were previously inaccessible to product developers. But increased design iteration can also lead to increased material usage, and maybe even greater waste. PolySpectra founder Raymond Weitekamp believes that the next evolution for prototyping will be even more rapid and even more capable — but less physical as well. His company’s Massless tool offers an intermediary step between fully digital designs and 3D printed prototypes through an augmented reality (AR) interface that allows for previewing an STL in the user’s physical space before hitting “print” or “buy.”

“Web AR capabilities are already available on phones, tablets and computers,” Weitekamp explains. “This is a way to manifest a 3D dimensional object in physical space,” without investing printer time, materials and other resources into producing early-stage prototypes and parts still in development.

Prototyping Through Augmented Reality

Massless is a free online tool that allows users to upload their own STL files and see them rendered into physical space through a smartphone or tablet. Files can be uploaded from these mobile devices or from a PC; in the latter case, the user will receive a QR code to scan with the device camera to activate the AR experience. The AR viewer places the object on a flat surface visible in the camera, and allows the user to manipulate it within this physical environment.

Click here to try it for yourself with the Additive Manufacturing Media logo, or any handy STL file. 

The goal of manipulating an AR object as opposed to a physical one is not to bypass 3D printing and prototyping, but rather to eliminate obvious problems and challenges in a virtual stage. “This won’t replace physical prototypes to check exact dimensions or snap fit,” Weitekamp says, “but it will help you evaluate whether this design is what you actually want.”

This could mean even faster, cheaper iterations for product designers and manufacturers. It could also mean an avenue to more custom and on-demand product manufacturing; if consumers can “see” an object in their home before ordering it, they may forgo visiting a brick-and-mortar store to view it in person as part of the buying process. That seller’s inventory can thus become digital, with no need to actually produce anything until the moment it is needed.

Massless Prototyping for Responsible 3D Printing

This push to augmented reality might seem at odds with the other parts of the polySpectra business, which develops materials for additive manufacturing based on a UV-activated chemistry Weitekamp discovered during his postgraduate research and provides printing services for parts made from these high-performance materials. Its first commercially available product is COR Alpha resin for digital light processing (DLP), suitable for challenging applications including medical and aerospace parts, and the company was recently awarded funding from the Department of Energy to advance 3D printed tooling along with printer manufacturer Fortify.

But polySpectra is not just in additive manufacturing to sell parts or material; Weitekamp sees these resins fitting into very specific niches, and massless prototyping is a way to help ensure they are being used in the best, most responsible way possible. That means better products faster — by virtue of better design and prototyping tools — as well as distributed and on-demand manufacturing.  

Prior to the chemistry discovery, Weitekamp’s work was mostly in renewable energy and so it has remained important to him to approach additive manufacturing from a sustainability perspective. He sees a three-pronged approach to pursuing reduced energy usage through AM:

1. Embrace digital and “massless” design, validation and shopping so that less waste is produced.
2. Use 3D printing to create items with “less mass” that are lighter and more efficient, through design and high-performance materials.
3. Embrace less movement. (“30 percent of the energy usage in the United States is for transportation,” Weitekamp says.) Distribute manufacturing to make products and parts closer to where they are needed and reduce energy embedded in shipping.

Massless prototyping may be just the first step, but it could help to advance this overall mission. For now, it’s about raising awareness through a free, widely accessible and virtual option.

“Augmented reality won’t solve energy consumption, but it will get people to think twice about making something,” he says.