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Manufacturing

Additive manufacturing

Vat Photopolymerization

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Vat photopolymerization forms structures by curing liquid photopolymer resin with ultraviolet light. The structure is submerged, raised, and cured over several stages to form complex, solid structures. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Additive Manufacturing (AM) Program implements various vat photopolymerization techniques for AM. If you would like guidance on additive manufacturing efforts or a chance to use our resources, you can explore our research opportunities, and/or contact us.

Learn more about our vat photopolymerization work by exploring the content below:
Projects | News | Past Events

a complex architectural model is being produced by suspension in a vat of photopolymer resin and ultraviolet (UV) curing
A complex architectural model is produced via vat photopolymerization. The model is suspended in a vat of photopolymer resin and cured into a solid structure using ultraviolet light.
Credit: Adobe Stock

Projects

Click the plus icon (+) below to learn our vat photopolymerization projects.

Photopolymer Additive Manufacturing

NIST's goal is to support innovation in the Photopolymer Additive Manufacturing (PAM) industry by enabling unprecedented high-resolution, mechanically-precise vat photopolymerization via fundamental understanding informed by novel voxel and sub-voxel-scale characterization throughout all major stages of the printing process. Learn more.

Project Leaders: Jason Killgore & Callie Higgins

An image showing the hybrid AFM + SLA system from the SPM4AMP project
An image showing the hybrid AFM + SLA system. Credit: NIST

News

Click the plus icon (+) below to explore news about our vat photopolymerization efforts.

Spotlight: Toot, Toot! NIST Innovation in 3D Printing Takes a Familiar Form for the Industry

Do you know Benchy the Boat? NIST researchers certainly do, and the 3D-printing design is helping them make waves with a technique called vat photopolymerization. Read more.

Two miniature tugboat replicas sit in front of a metal ruler.
Many involved in 3D-printing have tested their machines against #3DBenchy (short for benchmark). That’s because the boat contains challenging features for printers to overcome, such as pillars and overhangs.
Credit: T. Kolibaba/NIST

Past Events

Explore our past events about vat photopolymerization by clicking the plus icon (+) below.

Photopolymer Additive Manufacturing Alliance (PAMA) 2023 Workshop - Building a Unified Vision from Research to Regulation

RadTech and NIST hosted the second in-person photopolymer additive manufacturing workshop in Boulder, CO from September 18-19, 2023. Learn more.

Photopolymer Additive Manufacturing Alliance (PAMA) logo
Photopolymer Additive Manufacturing Alliance (PAMA) logo
Credit: RadTech International

NIST AM publishes research about vat photopolymerization for additive manufacturing. View some of our publications here.

Manufacturing, Additive manufacturing, Materials, Metrology and Standards

Contacts

Additive Manufacturing Program Coordinator

Created November 15, 2024, Updated December 11, 2024