However, current 3D printing for polymers is mainly limited to prototyping rather than fabricating final products. With the advantages mentioned above, the presented technique is believed to make a large impact on large-scale manufacturing.ģD printing is a layer-by-layer additive manufacturing technique, which enables the fabrication of customized or complex structures without the costly and time-consuming mold-making procedure 1, 2, 3, 4. The printing process is highly robust for fabricating diversified materials with various functions. This technique shows excellent printing stability even for fabricating large continuous solid structures, which is extremely challenging for other rapid 3D printing techniques. The hydrogel needs to be extraordinarily soft and unusually thick to remarkably reduce the adhesion force which is a key factor for achieving rapid 3D printing. In sharp contrast to other techniques, the unique separation mechanism relies on the large recoverable deformation along the thickness direction of the hydrogel interface during the layer-wise printing. Here we report that a common stereolithographic 3D printing facility can achieve a very high printing speed (400 mm/h) using a green and inexpensive hydrogel as a separation interface against the cured part.

Innovative techniques have been developed to break the limitation of printing speed, however, sophisticated facilities or costly consumables are required, which still substantially restricts the economic efficiency. The low productivity of typical 3D printing is a major hurdle for its utilization in large-scale manufacturing.

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