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多材料喷墨3D打印可能是添加剂制造中的关键新功能

想象一下未来,可以通过按钮触摸完整的机器人或弹力的电子医疗设备3D打印,从而消除了数小时乏味的手动组件的需求。

多材料喷墨3D打印可能是添加剂制造中的关键新功能。
A network of capillaries 3D-printed using a newly developed technique. Image Credit: Hayes et al. 2022, Advanced Materials.

That possibility may be closer than previously thought thanks to the latest advancement in 3D-printing technology. The research headed by engineers atCu Boulderlays out an approach for using current printers to create materials that meld solid and liquid components, a difficult task that might result in the collapse of the robot, in a new study.

I think there’s a future where we could, for example, fabricate a complete system like a robot using this process

罗伯特·麦卡迪(Robert MacCurdy),科罗拉多大学博尔德大学的保罗·M·拉迪机械工程系的高级作家和助理教授

MacCurdy, along with doctoral students Brandon Hayes and Travis Hainsworth, published their observations on April 14Th, 2022, in the journal添加剂制造

在实验室工作的业余爱好者和科学家很长一段时间以来都可以使用3D打印机。他们擅长制作塑料恐龙和单个机器零件(例如齿轮和关节)。但是,根据Maccurdy的说法,他们可以做更多的事情。

3D printers could create devices that are more dynamic, flexible and potentially more useful by combining solids and liquids. Wearable electronic devices with liquid wires contained within solid substrates, as well as models that mimic the squishiness of real human organs, are among them.

The advancement, according to the engineer, is comparable to conventional printers that print in color rather than black and white.

Color printers combine a small number of primary colors to create a rich range of images. The same is true with materials. If you have a printer that can use multiple kinds of materials, you can combine them in new ways and create a much broader range of mechanical properties

罗伯特·麦卡迪(Robert MacCurdy),科罗拉多大学博尔德大学的保罗·M·拉迪机械工程系的高级作家和助理教授

空的空间

Comparing 3D printers to regular printers in the office can help understand those properties. Liquid inks are laid down in thousands of flat pixels by paper printers to create an image. In contrast, inkjet 3D printers use a printhead to drop tiny beads of fluid called “voxels” (a combination of “volume” and “pixel”) one on top of the other.

Very soon after those droplets are deposited, they are exposed to a bright, ultraviolet light. The curable liquids convert into solids within a second or less

罗伯特·麦卡迪(Robert MacCurdy),科罗拉多大学博尔德大学的保罗·M·拉迪机械工程系的高级作家和助理教授

但是,在某些情况下,这些液体应保持液体。例如,一些工程师使用液体或蜡来在固体材料中创建微小的通道,然后将其清空。亚博网站下载这类似于水滴如何雕刻地下洞穴。

工程师已经设计了在3D打印零件中创建此类空空间的方法,但是清洁它们通常需要很长时间,并且需要大量精力。频道还必须保持尽可能简单。

MacCurdy和他的同事决定通过获得洞察力来解决这些限制,从而使工程师能够同时打印固体和液体材料。亚博网站下载

Liquid Courage

研究人员首先创建了一系列计算机模拟,以研究彼此相邻打印不同材料的物理学。亚博网站下载

Citing one of the major issues, MacCurdy says, “How can you keep your droplets of solid materials from mixing into the liquid materials, even when the droplets of solid material are printed directly on top of the liquid droplets?”

To assist them in doing so, the team established a set of rules.

We found the surface tension of a liquid can be used to support solid material, but it is helpful to pick a liquid material that is more dense than the solid material—the same physics that allow oil to float on top of water,”海斯补充说。

The scientists then used a real 3D printer in the laboratory to test their findings. They loaded a curable polymer, or plastic (the solid), into the printer, as well as a standard cleaning solution (the liquid). The team was able to 3D-print twisting loops of liquid and a complex network of channels that looked similar to the branching pathways in a human lung.

两种结构几乎是不可能通过以前的方法制作的,”海恩斯沃思说。

MacCurdy has also recently joined a team of CU Boulder and CU Anschutz Medical Campus researchers working on ways to 3D-print realistic human tissue models. These models could be used by doctors to practice procedures and make diagnoses. Among other tools, the project will use MacCurdy’s liquid–solid approach.

我们希望我们的结果能够使用液体和固体来使多材料喷墨3D打印更容易被世界各地的研究人员和爱好者访问,” MacCurdy总结道。

期刊参考:

Hayes, B.,et al。(2022)通过材料喷射对多物质3D流体设备的液体固体共同打印。添加剂制造doi.org/10.1016/j.addma.2022.102785

Source:https://www.colorado.edu/

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