ERI: Additive Manufacturing of Polymer-Matrix Composites with High Concentration of Silicon-Carbide Particles by Novel Digital Light Projection

ERI：通过新型数字光投影增材制造高浓度碳化硅颗粒的聚合物基复合材料

• 批准号: 2301462
• 负责人: Erina Baynojir Joyee
• 金额: $ 20万
• 依托单位: University of North Carolina at Charlotte
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-06-01 至 2025-05-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2301462&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: ERI; Additive; Manufacturing; Polymer; Matrix

Additive manufacturing (AM) offers a versatile platform for fabricating ceramic-polymer composites of complex structures. Over the last two decades, various innovative AM processes have been successfully developed for ceramic-polymer 3D printing. Especially, methods based on digital light projection (DLP) enable the direct digital fabrication of intricate structures made of ceramic-polymer composites. Despite potential advantages, current DLP AM have difficulty in printing composites with a high concentration of ceramic particles, e.g., silicon carbide (SiC), desired to enhance the functionality of printed parts. The challenge lies upon the increased viscosity resulted from the particle-polymer interactions, causing high resistance to the feedstock flow. This Engineering Research Initiation (ERI) award supports fundamental research to understand the physics behind printing of ceramic-included photopolymers that are highly viscous. The research involves multi-disciplinary integration of physics, materials science, surface engineering, and manufacturing technology. The project will have strong technological and economic impacts by streamlining production of components with complex geometries, e.g., gyroid structures, for scaffolding and heat exchangers, in an efficient and cost-effective manner, while ensuring the quality in part dimensions as well as microstructures. Moreover, this project will involve minority students in research and teaching, thus, enhancing the STEM education and their representation in advanced manufacturing workforce.The goal of this ERI project is to understand the fundamentals behind two major roadblocks, namely, high separation forces and light scattering, in 3D digital-light printing of complex-shaped parts using highly viscous ceramic suspensions. The project will first address the challenge of high separation forces through the “resin replenishment” mechanism by integrating oxygen permeability into the system, introducing micro-textured air channels to accelerate the resin re-coating and reduce the separation force between the printed part and the build window. Secondly, a dynamic mask image projection strategy will be modeled and employed to minimize the effect of light scattering and undesired photo patterns within the printed part. This will enable high-accuracy and high-speed fabrications of 3D polymer-ceramic parts with complex geometry and precise micro-features. If successful, the project will make a transformative impact of applying surface engineering techniques to oxygen permeable air channels for bottom-up layer-by-layer 3D printing of SiC-polymer composite structures with enhanced mechanical properties. The research will also advance the knowledge of novel projection using dynamic mask images to compensate for the influence of light scattering on curing results. Accordingly, a new technology will be developed to avoid curing defects or failures in high-viscosity ceramic printing and enable producing complex geometries that are challenging to make using existing systems.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.

增材制造（AM）为制造复杂结构的陶瓷-聚合物复合材料提供了一个通用平台。在过去的二十年里，各种创新的AM工艺已经成功地开发用于陶瓷聚合物3D打印。特别是，基于数字光投影（DLP）的方法使得能够直接数字制造由陶瓷-聚合物复合材料制成的复杂结构。尽管具有潜在的优点，但目前的DLP AM难以印刷具有高浓度陶瓷颗粒的复合材料，例如，碳化硅（SiC），期望增强打印部件的功能。挑战在于颗粒-聚合物相互作用导致的粘度增加，从而导致对原料流动的高阻力。该工程研究启动（ERI）奖支持基础研究，以了解包含陶瓷的高粘性光聚合物打印背后的物理学。该研究涉及物理学，材料科学，表面工程和制造技术的多学科融合。该项目将通过简化具有复杂几何形状的部件的生产来产生强大的技术和经济影响，例如，以高效和成本效益高的方式生产用于脚手架和热交换器的螺旋结构，同时确保零件尺寸和微观结构的质量。此外，该项目还将让少数民族学生参与研究和教学，从而加强STEM教育，并提高他们在先进制造业劳动力中的代表性。该ERI项目的目标是了解使用高粘性陶瓷悬浮液进行复杂形状零件的3D数字光打印的两个主要障碍，即高分离力和光散射的基本原理。该项目将首先通过“树脂补充”机制解决高分离力的挑战，将氧气渗透性集成到系统中，引入微纹理空气通道以加速树脂重新涂覆并降低打印部件和构建窗口之间的分离力。其次，动态掩模图像投影策略将被建模和采用，以最大限度地减少光散射的影响和不希望的照片图案内的打印部分。这将实现具有复杂几何形状和精确微特征的3D聚合物陶瓷部件的高精度和高速制造。如果成功，该项目将产生变革性的影响，将表面工程技术应用于透氧空气通道，用于自下而上逐层3D打印具有增强机械性能的SiC-聚合物复合材料结构。该研究还将推进使用动态掩模图像来补偿光散射对固化结果的影响的新型投影的知识。因此，将开发一种新技术，以避免高粘度陶瓷印刷中的固化缺陷或故障，并能够生产复杂的几何形状，这是具有挑战性的使用现有系统。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得支持的评估使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。