Process marries plastics, 3D printing and electroplating

Applications for 3D printing are growing at dizzying speed. One new strategy, however, stands out because it marries plastics, 3D printing and electroplating to easily create a complex research instrument that manipulates individual molecules.

Researcher Andeas Osterwalder used 3D printing to create in plastic the form of a molecular beam splitter, then electroplated it with nickel to give an instrument with the fine detail, mechanical strength and conductivity to perform his experiments.

Osterwalder and colleague Sean Gordon published their work in a recent edition of the peer-reviewed journal Physical Review Applied. "This opens tremendous possibilities in our type of experiments," Osterwalder said in an email from his office at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) in Lausanne, Switzerland.

"Previously experiments often had to be adjusted to what is possible. With 3D printing we are completely free in the design, and we can simply think up a structure that we need, and then we make it."

Osterwalder said it took little more than a week to construct the beam splitter, including the CAD work and shipping the 3D part to and from the electroplating house, the Swiss company Galvotec GmbH which is headquartered in Schöfflisdorf, Switzerland.

Repliform electroplates a lot of 3D printed parts for the aerospace industry where small electrical housings need EMI shielding. The industry also requires high-wear surfaces in some uses that nickel provides.Repliform processes tens of thousands of parts per year, often placing them on racks to save space and handling. Wise said a rule of thumb is that the basic electroplating will add about 50 percent to the cost of a 3D printed part. He and his co-owner wife started electroplating SLA parts in 2001 and are seeing sales grow about 10 to 15 percent a year.