SBIR Phase I: High Speed Rapid Prototyping and Manufacturing Using Electron Beams

这个小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目将结合联合收割机电子束固化和动态束控制技术，以创建电子束快速原型/制造设备。这种技术的独特优势在于它提供了5 - 20 cc/秒范围内的“超高”速度。 如果成功，所产生的技术可以在1分钟内生产出一升大小的大型复杂塑料部件。这种速度的提高将大大降低快速成型的成本，使这项技术可以用于中小型生产制造。 除了提高速度外，电子束固化可以使用比光学固化更广泛的材料，因为电子直接刺激聚合，而不需要光引发剂作为固化化合物的一部分。电子束也可用于将金属和碳纤维集成到快速原型部件中。在第一阶段，将使用该技术生产原始零件，并制定完整的第二阶段系统的计划，该系统将专注于各种可用的电子束固化塑料。该技术的应用包括小批量生产的零件生产，如电子外壳，定制机械设备或医疗设备。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will combine electron beam curing and dynamic beam control technology to create equipment for electron beam rapid prototyping/manufacturing. The unique advantage of this technique is that it offers 'ultra-high' speeds in the range of 5 - 20 cc/second. If successful, the resulting technology can produce one liter sized, large, complex plastic parts in times of order 1 minute. This increase in speed will dramatically reduce the cost of rapid prototyping so that this technique can be used in small and medium production run manufacturing. In addition to increasing speed, electron beam curing can use a much wider range of materials than optical curing because the electrons stimulate polymerization directly, without requiring photoinitiators as part of the cured compound . Electron beams can also be used to integrate metals and carbon fibers into the rapid prototyped part. In Phase I, crude parts will be produced using this technique, and develop plans for a complete Phase II system that will focus on the large variety of available electron beam curable plastics.Applications for the technology include production of parts for small lot production such as electronic enclosures, custom mechanical equipment or medical equipment.