3D Copier Using Liquid/Solid Phase Change

This paper describes a 3D copier using liquid/solid phase change. 3D printer becomes common in recent years. Although various structures can be created by using 3D printer, it requires sophisticated technical skills such as 2D or 3D CAD design. It is difficult for general people to design desired structures by using CAD software. A 3D copier using low-melting alloy is proposed to solve the problem. The proposed 3D copier can sense the shape of the desired structure and memorize its shape to copy it. We can use it as a casting mold to copy the desired structure. We confirmed that the proposed 3D copier could copy various structures easily and fast through the experiments.