Advanced Methods for Direct Ink Write Additive Manufacturing
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is one of the world’s premier labs for research and development of additive manufacturing processes. Out of these many processes, direct ink write (DIW) is arguably one of the most relevant for the manufacture of architected polymeric materials, components and hardware. However, a bottleneck in this pipeline that has largely been ignored to date is the lack of advanced software implementation with respect to toolpath execution. There remains to be a convenient, automated method to design and produce complex parts that is user-friendly and enabling for the realization of next generation designs and structures. For a material to be suitable as a DIW ink it must possess the appropriate rheological properties for this process. Most importantly, the material must exhibit shear-thinning in order to extrude through a print head and have a rapid recovery of its static shear modulus. This makes it possible for the extrudate to be self-supporting upon exiting the print head. While this and other prerequisites narrow the scope of ‘offthe- shelf’ printable materials directly amenable to DIW, the process still tolerates a wide range of potential feedstock materials. These include metallic alloys, inorganic solvent borne dispersions, polymeric melts, filler stabilized monomer compositions, pre-elastomeric feedstocks and thermoset resins each of which requires custom print conditions tailored to the individual ink. As such, an ink perfectly suited for DIW may be prematurely determined to be undesirable for the process if printed under the wrong conditions. Defining appropriate print conditions such as extrusion rate, layer height, and maximum bridge length is a vital first step in validating an ink’s DIW capability.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC52-07NA27344
- OSTI ID:
- 1418958
- Report Number(s):
- LLNL--TR-745076
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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