I-Corps: High purity metal additive manufacturing

这个i-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是探索用于天线、过滤器、生物医学设备和航空航天设备等应用的新型金属添加剂制造(AM)的翻译。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。这项拟议的技术是一种新的添加剂制造方法，能够以更少的废物在节能过程中沉积高纯金属。到目前为止，最大的AM采用者是航空航天行业，它使用了许多3D打印部件。这个拟议的项目将调查航空制造中的翻译机会。这个i-Corps项目基于一种新的金属添加剂制造方法，在这种方法中，材料被沉积/打印到原型、设计或技术中。现有的添加剂制造技术在印刷合金方面存在限制，限制了产品的纯度。该技术是实现纯金属印刷的一种新的AM方法。它可以用来在任何方向上沉积(即在晶片或衬底上的任何方向)，有利于特定的原型强度。每个喷嘴的沉积速度约为1毫升/小时。这种方法还允许在纳米级控制孔隙率，允许在生物医学植入和过滤等领域进行新的应用和好处。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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.