I-Corps: High purity metal additive manufacturing

这个I-Corps项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是探索新型金属增材制造（AM）的应用，如天线，过滤器，生物医学设备和航空航天设备。虽然目前的原型专注于铜，并显示出成功的结果，但该工艺可以扩展到其他高纯金属，如铝。该技术是一种新的增材制造方法，可以在节能的过程中沉积高纯金属，减少浪费。到目前为止，最大的增材制造采用者是航空航天工业，它使用了许多3D打印部件。 拟议的项目将调查航空航天制造业的转化机会。这个I-Corps项目是基于一种新的金属增材制造方法，其中材料被沉积/打印到原型，设计或技术中。现有的增材制造技术存在合金可以打印的局限性，从而限制了产品的纯度。 所提出的技术是一种新的AM方法，能够实现纯金属打印。 它可用于在任何方向上（即在晶片或衬底上的任何取向上）存款，有利于特定的原型强度。每个喷嘴的沉积速率约为1 cc/小时。该方法还允许在纳米级水平上控制孔隙率，从而在生物医学植入物和过滤等领域实现新的应用和效益。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is to explore translation for novel metal additive manufacturing (AM) for applications such as antennas, filters, biomedical devices, and aerospace devices. While the current prototype has focused on and shown successful results with copper, the process can be expanded to other highly pure metals, such as aluminum. The proposed technology is a new method of additive manufacturing enabling deposition of highly pure metals in an energy-efficient process with less waste. The largest AM adopter thus far, the aerospace industry, utilizes many 3D printed parts. The proposed project will investigate translational opportunities in aerospace manufacturing.This I-Corps project is based on a novel metal additive manufacturing method, where the material is deposited/printed into the prototype, design, or technology. Existing additive manufacturing technologies have limitations in which alloys can be printed, limiting the product's purity. The proposed technology is a new AM method enabling pure metal printing. It can be used to deposit in any direction (i.e. at any orientation onto a wafer or substrate), beneficial for specific prototype strengths. Each nozzle deposits around a rate of 1 cc/hour. This method also allows for control of porosity at the nanoscale level, allowing for new applications and benefits in areas such as biomedical implants and filtration.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.