Laser-Based 3D printer for thermally cured polymer devices with micron resolution
Abstract
There is currently much interest in 3D printing of materials. As such, Ôon demandÕ means of manufacturing useful devices promises to revolutionize fields such as machining, medicine, and consumer goods, to name a few. 3D printing may be particularly enabling for DOD applications where manufacturing at the point of use may provide unique capabilities and ease supply chain and logistics issues. Though significant advances in 3D printing have been made, there remain several classes of materials for which 3D printing has yet to be realized. One such class is the thermally cured thermoset polymers. These polymers are widely used, and include materials such as epoxy resins, polyurethane, and PDMS that find applications in defense and medicine. The difficulty in 3D printing these materials largely stems from a requirement for extremely rapid (sub microsecond) heating/cooling cycles that span large (thousands of degrees) temperature changes Ð a requirement that cannot be easily met using conventional heating means. Work from our laboratories has demonstrated that the photothermal effect of nanoparticles meets the stringent heating and cooling requirements, and is sufficient to drive polymerization of thermally cured thermoset materials. Indeed, we find that we can increase the rate of polymerization by at least a billion-fold, providing an underlying technology that could be harnessed to 3D print thermally cured thermoset polymers. At this stage, what is needed is the equipment that will enable a practical demonstration of 3D printing. We are proposing to purchase the components needed to construct a printer that will be capable of harnessing our technology to 3D print large (up to 10 cm) objects from thermally cured thermosets with at least micron resolution. The construction and use of this printer will provide students with training in a wide set of experimental and theoretical techniques spanning a range of disciplines from chemistry to materials science to physics. Successful demonstration of this printer will usher in a new (and highly desirable) class of materials to the 3D manufacturing revolution Ð extending the capabilities of the DOD in the process. Additionally, this new type of laser-based printer will be useful for other 3D printed materials in DOD projects across Penn State including bio-synthetic material hybrids, inorganic, and optical materials.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Aug 19, 2019
- Source ID
- W911NF1810195
Entities
People
- Benjamin J. Lear
Organizations
- Army Contracting Command
- Pennsylvania State University
- United States Army