# Design and Application of a New Visible Light-Curing 3D Printing Platform
## 2 Materials and Methods  
### Design and Construction of Visible Light-Curing 3D Printing Platform  
The visible lighting-curing 3D printing platform consists of four parts, respectively, a control module, a conveying module, a leveling module, and a light source module. The control module uses the melt deposition 3D printer (FDM) as the carrier and uses computer software and G-code to control the printing process of the printer.  
We selected MKs-Robin as the control board, Marlin 2.0 as the control system, single cantilever structure as the printing mode. We used Simplify3D and G-code to control the 3D printer, and realized the preset printing process through editing the G-code. The power supply of the 3D printer is 12 V 100 W, and its bracket, track and accessories are ordinary consumables and 3D printed parts.  
In the conveying module, PVC pipes (tensile strength 600 kg/cm\({}^{2}\), tearing strength 155 kg/cm\({}^{2}\), the manufacturer is Yueqing He Pneumatic factory) with diameters of 6.4 mm and 3.2 mm were selected as the feed pipes, and the pipes were connected with Ruhr inner and outer rotating joints. The BJ-1030-4 peristaltic pump facilitates the transportation of the energetic slurry. By maintaining a height difference between the inlet and outlet, it ensures that the visible light-cured slurry maintains proper fluidity. Depending on the viscosity of the slurry, pipelines of varying diameters are utilized. Specifically, the pipeline we used had an internal diameter of 3 mm and an external diameter of 5 mm, while the funnel was constructed from a pipe with a 9 mm internal diameter and an 11 mm external diameter.  
In the leveling module, an ultrasonic vibrator was chosen. As the visible light-solidified slurry travelled between the tube and the casing, the ultrasonic waves influenced its surface tension. Research indicates that higher ultrasonic power results in decreased liquid surface tension, making it more conducive to leveling and wetting. The ultrasonic vibrator's structure comprises two main components: the transducer and the ultrasonic vibrator itself. Ruhr inner and outer rotating joints as shown in Figure 2.  
Figure 1: Process flow chart.  
The choice of light-curing lamp should be based on the photosensitive wavelength of the photoinitiator. Existing curing lamps are mainly categorized as ultraviolet curing lamps, visible light-curing lamps, or infrared curing lamps. Visible light-curing lamps have certain differences in performance parameters according to different luminous principles, luminous intensity and use environment. The curing lamp is the main working part of light-curing equipment; curing lamps should have a long service life, long working time, high power, short curing time and other characteristics, and should output a stable and ideal band of light. The central wavelength of the CQ photosensitive band is 468 nm. In this study, an LED was selected as the light-curing lamp; LEDs are low priced, with a long lamp life (10,000-100,000 h), good stability, only a small amount of degradation of output power over time, and a light intensity of more than 1000 mW/cm\({}^{3}\), which can be improved by stacking the number of lights. LEDs have the advantages of simple operation, strong energy and low heat production, and are suitable for curing lamps. Additionally, for precise light-curing time, a time relay with two control channels was selected as the control device, and the time relay is shown in Figure 3.