Overprinting with tomographic volumetric additive manufacturing

Tomographic Volumetric Additive Manufacturing (TVAM) is a light-based 3D printing technique capable of producing centimeter-scale objects within seconds. A key challenge lies in the calculation of tomographic projection patterns under non-standard conditions, such as the presence of occlusions and materials with diverse optical properties, including varying refractive indices or scattering surfaces. This work demonstrates a broad range of overprinting scenarios, where new structures are directly printed onto or around pre-existing components made from different materials. Our simulations and experimental verifications perform overprinting of absorbing, refracting, reflecting and scattering elements in both round and square vials. All scenarios are optimized with our differentiable, physically based ray-optics approach using the open-source Dr.TVAM framework, delivering high-quality projections for both laser- and LED-based illuminations within minutes and lower-quality projections within seconds, exceeding existing open-source solutions in speed, flexibility, and quality. The authors present a computational framework that calculates optimized light patterns for direct 3D printing of new structures onto or around existing components with complex optical properties, enabling overprinting in scenarios with occlusions, refraction, reflection, and scattering.