MRI: Acquisition of a Multi-Material Additive Manufacturing Platform for Multi-Disciplinary Research and Education

增材制造是一种制造小体积、轻重量和复杂零件的新方法。与传统制造工艺相比，增材制造可以提高制造速度和几何自由度。通过降低小批量生产的成本，它彻底改变了产品开发，并使新的行业成为可能。然而，到目前为止，这些成就主要是在单个组件或具有类似材料要求的一系列相邻组件中使用增材制造。当增材制造能够直接制造整个功能系统时，它的全部变革性影响将得以实现。该项目将获得一个多材料增材制造平台，其中包括一个光子固化系统。该制造平台提供了在一台机器中集成多种工艺和材料的独特能力。这个开放式体系结构的系统将托管在南佛罗里达大学（USF）的多用户纳米技术研究和教育中心，提供一个必要的研究平台，以推进整个系统的多材料制造，这将补充现有的材料加工和制备，计量和材料表征设施。来自三所USF学院的PI和co-PI不仅将与USF的合作者合作，还将与佛罗里达州其他研究所的合作者合作，以最大限度地发挥这些设备的价值。这些新设备将用于加强研究活动，支持有前途的发现的商业化，丰富研究生和本科生教育，并支持K-12学校，社区学院和专业培训计划的推广活动。这些合作伙伴关系将向K-12学生和教师介绍增材制造，教育未来的技术人员使用和维护设备，并支持当地工程师的专业发展研讨会。高功能的印刷系统需要不同的电气、结构、热和化学特性的组合。单一工艺增材制造系统无法集成足够的材料来满足这些要求。通过集成多材料/多方法沉积和快速基于区域的固化，显著扩展了联合收割机组合多种材料的能力。拟收购的系统包括直接写入，热挤压，激光加工兼容性，并拾取和放置插入，所有这些都结合在一个高精度的线性电机控制的机架与10纳米的分辨率。此外，快速热处理能够实现亚稳态结构和分级性质。这种能力将使跨多材料增材制造层次的多学科研究成为可能。该设备将为工程（化学，电气，工业和机械），化学，物理和制药（纳米医学）之间的合作创造令人兴奋的新领域。

Additive Manufacturing is a new way of manufacturing low volume, light weight and complex parts. Compared to traditional manufacturing processes, additive manufacturing can improve manufacturing speed and geometric freedom. By decreasing the cost of low-volume production, it has revolutionized product development and enabled new industries. However, these accomplishments so far have largely used additive manufacturing in a single component or in a series of adjacent components with similar material requirements. The full transformative impact of additive manufacturing will be realized when it is able to fabricate an entire functional system directly. This project will acquire a multi-material additive manufacturing platform that includes a photonic curing system. This manufacturing platform provides a unique ability to integrate multiple processes and materials in a single machine. This open-architecture system will be hosted in the multi-user Nanotechnology Research and Education Center at University of South Florida (USF) to provide a research platform necessary to advance multi-material manufacturing of entire systems, which will complement the existing facilities for material processing and preparation, metrology and materials characterization. The PI and co-PIs from three USF colleges will work with their collaborators not only in USF, but also from other institutes across the State of Florida to maximize the value of this equipment. This new equipment will be used to enhance research activities, support commercialization of promising discoveries, enrich graduate and undergraduate education, and support outreach activities at K-12 schools, community college, and professional training programs. These partnerships will introduce K-12 students and teachers to additive manufacturing, educate tomorrow's technicians to use and maintain the equipment, and support professional development workshops for local engineers. Highly functional printed systems require the combination of different electrical, structural, thermal, and chemical properties. Single process additive manufacturing systems are unable to integrate sufficient materials to accomplish these requirements. By integrating multi-material/multi-method deposition and rapid area-based curing, the ability to combine multiple materials is dramatically expanded. The proposed system to be acquired includes direct write, thermal extrusion, laser machining compatibility, and pick-and-place insertion, all combined on a high-precision linear-motor-controlled gantry with 10 nm resolution. Additionally, the fast thermal processing enables metastable structures and graded properties. This capability will enable multi-disciplinary research across the hierarchy of multi-material additive manufacturing. The equipment will create exciting new areas for collaboration between engineering (chemical, electrical, industrial, and mechanical), chemistry, physics, and pharmacy (nanomedicine).