I-Corps: Improved Approach to Polymer Sintering

I-Corps项目的广泛影响/商业潜力将提高美国制造业的竞争力，并开辟新的产品机会。该技术通过消除目前对材料、可实现性能和加工速度的限制，有可能扩大3D打印的应用空间。这将允许用户根据用户需求定制零件，并缩短从医疗设备到航空航天再到消费产品等行业的交货时间。3D打印行业有很多机会，因为它正在快速增长（每年15-20%）。尽管仍然存在许多紧迫的技术问题，但制造的新方法正在改变各种各样的行业。该项目背后的技术可以通过解决一些关键的限制，为这些技术开辟新的市场/行业。这个I-Corps项目将评估使用粉末原料中的聚合物进行增材制造（3D打印）的改进工艺。这通常是通过用激光扫描粉末床来局部融合粉末颗粒来完成的。这里开发了一种替代方法，允许在较长时间内经济地熔合粉末。由于工艺的限制，目前基于激光的方法仅限于利用一些特殊的材料类型。虽然这些适用于许多应用，但有许多应用需要专用材料，而这些材料在当前的增材制造方法中无法使用。这项技术有可能扩大可成功加工材料的范围。此外，通过当前方法产生的材料性能相对于使用诸如注射成型的传统方法获得的材料性能降低。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project will increase American manufacturing competitiveness and open new product opportunities. The technology has the potential to expand the application space for 3D printing by removing current limitations on materials, achievable properties, and processing speed. This will allow users to customize parts to user needs and reduce lead times for industries from medical devices to aerospace, to consumer products. There are many opportunities in the 3D printing industry because it is rapidly growing (15-20% per year). The new approaches to manufacturing are transforming a wide variety of industries despite many pressing technical issues that remain. The technology behind this project can open new markets/industries for these technologies by addressing some of the critical limitations.This I-Corps project will evaluate a modified process for additive manufacturing (3D Printing) with polymers from a powder feedstock. This is typically done by scanning the powder bed with a laser to locally fuse the powder particles together. An alternative method is developed here that allows for economical fusing of the powder over longer time periods. Current laser-based methods are constrained to utilizing a few specialized material types due to the process constraints. While these work for many applications, there are many applications that require specialized materials that cannot be used in the current additive manufacturing methods. This technology has the potential to expand the range of materials that can be successfully processed. Additionally, the material properties produced by current methods are reduced relative to those obtained using traditional approaches such as injection molding.