Investigation of Electrohydrodynamic 3D Printing for Super-Resolution Additive Manufacturing

该奖项支持基于熔融热塑性材料的电流体动力3D打印的高分辨率增材制造的基础研究。 该研究将开发一种用于热塑性材料的熔融电流体动力打印工艺，以实现具有单一微米级分辨率的复杂物体的高精度增材制造，这将克服大多数现有增材制造方法的分辨率障碍，并显着提高所生产零件的精度和表面光洁度。理论和经验的过程模型将被调查的熔体电流体动力学印刷过程中的材料特性和工艺参数的分析。这项研究将把工艺开发、工艺建模和新型制造系统整合到一个新的框架中，从而实现复杂工业和生物医学产品的高分辨率3D打印。该研究有可能通过提供低成本高分辨率3D打印工艺来制造具有上级表面光洁度的高精度零件，从而推动新兴的增材制造行业。增材制造已成为一个快速增长的行业，能够快速原型制作或生产汽车，航空航天和医疗应用的组件。考虑到工业产品和先进生物医学支架对分辨率和精度的苛刻要求，这项研究将提供一种变革性的方法，解决当前增材制造方法长期存在的分辨率限制。此外，该项目中的多学科教育计划将把研究成果和学生的活动与增材制造，超分辨率打印和仪器仪表行业的需求联系起来。该项目还将有助于本科教育，为本科生和少数民族学生提供研究经验，并通过其推广计划向K-12学生传播发现。

This award supports fundamental research on high-resolution additive manufacturing based on electrohydrodynamic 3D printing of melted thermoplastic materials. This research will develop a melt electrohydrodynamic printing process for thermoplastic materials to achieve high precision additive manufacturing of complex objects with single micron-scale resolution, which will overcome the resolution barrier of most existing additive manufacturing approaches and significantly improve the accuracy and surface finish of the produced parts. Theoretical and empirical process models will be investigated for the analysis of the melt electrohydrodynamic printing process with respect to material properties and process parameters. This research will integrate process development, process modeling, and a novel manufacturing system into a new framework that enables high-resolution 3D printing of complex industrial and biomedical products. The research has potential to advance the emerging additive manufacturing industry by providing a low-cost high-resolution 3D printing process for the manufacturing of high precision parts with superior surface finish. Additive manufacturing have became a fast growing industry that enables rapid prototyping or production of components for automotive, aerospace, and medical applications. Considering the demanding requirements on the resolution and accuracy of the industrial products and advanced biomedical scaffolds, this research will provide a transformative approach that solves the long-existing resolution limitation of current additive manufacturing approaches. Moreover, the multidisciplinary education program in this project will link the research outcomes and students' activities to the needs of the industry for additive manufacturing, super-resolution printing, and instrumentation. The project will also contribute to undergraduate education, provide research experience for undergraduate and minority students, and disseminate discoveries to K-12 students through its outreach program.