I-Corps: Microheater Array Powder Sintering Technology for Additive Manufacturing

I-Corps：用于增材制造的微加热器阵列粉末烧结技术

• 批准号: 2119897
• 负责人: Wenchao Zhou
• 金额: $ 5万
• 依托单位: University of Arkansas
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-04-01 至 2022-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2119897&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Corps; Microheater; Array; Powder; Sintering

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of a high-speed additive manufacturing technology, Microheater Array Powder Sintering (MAPS). The proposed technology may be used for high-volume production with a wide range of engineering materials at a cost competitive with traditional manufacturing. This may have a transformative impact on the manufacturing industry by facilitating the transition to fully digital manufacturing, enabling mass customization, and transforming how products are made and consumed. While the proposed MAPS technology potentially may impact many different industries (e.g., printed electronics, 3D printing) due to its significant advantages in energy consumption, equipment cost, manufacturing time, and process control, the initial focus is on the potential of MAPS for rapid prototyping and small volume production of plastic parts. Compared to other existing solutions in the market (e.g., selective laser sintering), MAPS may better serve the market needs in several areas including feedback control of the printing process for better part quality, higher printing speed, and lower cost of equipment and ownership. This may reduce the barrier of adopting additive manufacturing and accelerate the transition to digital manufacturing. This I-Corps project is based on the development of a Microheater Array Powder Sintering (MAPS) technology for additive manufacturing. The proposed technology uses a microheater array to digitally deliver a focused heat pattern and selectively sinter powder particles by placing the microheater array in close proximity to the powder surface. Compared to selective laser sintering (SLS) that uses a laser to fuse powder particles with point-wise scanning, MAPS uses an microheater array that may include thousands of microheater elements for line-wise or layer-wise printing. These printing processes enable significantly higher printing speeds. In contrast to high-cost lasers, a microheater array is an array of tiny thin-film resistors that may be fabricated at relatively low-cost using MEMS fabrication techniques. In addition, MAPS has much lower power consumption. Compared to a laser that typically requires 10s or 100s of watts of power for SLS, each microheater typically consumes 100s of milliwatts of power to achieve similar results. Moreover, MAPS enables easy feedback control. In contrast to a laser that delivers energy in an open-loop fashion without knowing the temperature, a microheater is also a temperature sensor, which allows for precise temperature control and enables feedback process control.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.

该 I-Corps 项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是高速增材制造技术微加热器阵列粉末烧结 (MAPS) 的开发。 所提出的技术可用于多种工程材料的大批量生产，其成本与传统制造相比具有竞争力。这可能会促进向完全数字化制造的过渡、实现大规模定制以及改变产品的制造和消费方式，从而对制造业产生变革性影响。虽然所提出的 MAPS 技术由于其在能耗、设备成本、制造时间和过程控制方面的显着优势，可能会影响许多不同的行业（例如印刷电子、3D 打印），但最初的重点是 MAPS 在快速原型制作和塑料零件小批量生产方面的潜力。与市场上现有的其他解决方案（例如选择性激光烧结）相比，MAPS 可以更好地满足多个领域的市场需求，包括打印过程的反馈控制，以实现更好的零件质量、更高的打印速度以及更低的设备和拥有成本。这可能会减少采用增材制造的障碍，并加速向数字制造的过渡。 该 I-Corps 项目基于用于增材制造的微型加热器阵列粉末烧结 (MAPS) 技术的开发。 所提出的技术使用微型加热器阵列以数字方式提供聚焦热模式，并通过将微型加热器阵列放置在靠近粉末表面的位置来选择性地烧结粉末颗粒。与使用激光通过逐点扫描熔化粉末颗粒的选择性激光烧结 (SLS) 相比，MAPS 使用可能包括数千个微型加热器元件的微型加热器阵列，用于逐行或逐层打印。 这些印刷工艺可显着提高印刷速度。与高成本激光器相比，微加热器阵列是微型薄膜电阻器阵列，可以使用 MEMS 制造技术以相对较低的成本制造。此外，MAPS 的功耗也低得多。与 SLS 通常需要 10 或 100 瓦功率的激光器相比，每个微型加热器通常消耗 100 毫瓦功率才能实现类似的结果。此外，MAPS 可以轻松实现反馈控制。与在不知道温度的情况下以开环方式提供能量的激光器相比，微型加热器也是一种温度传感器，可以实现精确的温度控制并实现反馈过程控制。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。