LEAP-HI/GOALI: DfAM of Smart Materials Using a Machine Learning Approach

这个领先的工程为美国的繁荣，健康和基础设施（LEAP-HI）/赠款机会学术联络与行业（GOALI）项目解决了复杂的技术挑战的自动化设计和增材制造（AM）的定制智能材料和设备。增材制造或3D打印是一种分层制造方法，正在迅速成为大规模生产的可行方法。特别是医疗器械行业，通过为特定患者、疾病和/或愈合阶段制造可定制的器械，将受益于AM。该项目通过开发打印“智能”材料的能力来推进AM，这些材料可以根据外部刺激改变形状。这些技术挑战是由工业合作伙伴Actuated Medical Incorporated（AMI）确定的医疗器械行业需求激发的，该行业需求是针对患者特定的自适应设备，该设备能够随着患者需求的变化以周期性间隔主动改变其形状。作为该项目一部分开发的活性聚合物材料在单一AM工艺中打印，将提供定制的多功能设备，具有完全集成的驱动功能，以推进患者特定医疗设备的最新技术水平。研究工作的智力价值在于融合不同但相关且互利的领域：智能材料、设计、增材制造以及工业规模扩大和集成。尽管AM技术不断发展，智能材料（包括可打印材料）不断增长，但很少有研究人员展示多功能多材料结构和设备的3D打印。该项目通过整合处理，建模，设计和表征，并通过调查多个焦点之间的复杂相互作用来解决这一知识差距。技术贡献包括：（1）开发具有定制形状记忆和磁-机械响应能力的功能梯度热固性聚合物，以及（2）开发能够对多种材料进行保形印刷和功能梯度的新型AM制造工艺。研究人员将与工业合作伙伴合作，制定适当的性能和制造要求，并通过工业合作伙伴设施的学生和教师的直接参与来扩大研究成果，同时考虑监管要求。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This Leading Engineering for America's Prosperity, Health, and Infrastructure (LEAP-HI) / Grant Opportunity for Academic Liaison with Industry (GOALI) project addresses the complex technical challenge of automated design and additive manufacturing (AM) of customized smart materials and devices. Additive manufacturing, or 3D printing, is a layer-wise approach to manufacturing that is rapidly becoming a viable method for large scale production. The medical device industry, in particular, stands to benefit from AM through manufacture of customizable devices for particular patients, diseases, and/or stages of healing. The project advances AM by developing the ability to print “smart” materials that can change shape in response to external stimuli. The technical challenges are motivated by a medical device industry need identified by the industrial partner, Actuated Medical Incorporated (AMI), for patient-specific adaptive devices that are capable of actively changing their shape at periodic intervals as the patient’s needs change. The active polymer materials developed as part of the project are printed in a single AM process and will provide customized multifunctional devices with fully integrated actuation to advance the state of the art in patient-specific medical devices.The intellectual merit of the researched work resides in the convergence of distinct, yet related and mutually beneficial, areas: smart materials, design, additive manufacturing, and industrial scale-up and integration. Despite the evolution of AM technologies and the ever-expanding growth of smart materials, including printable ones, few researchers have demonstrated the 3D printing of multifunctional multi-material structures and devices. The project addresses this gap in knowledge through the integration of processing, modeling, design and characterization, and by investigating the complex interactions between multiple foci. The technical contributions are: (1) development of functionally graded thermoset polymers with customized shape memory and magneto-mechanical response capabilities, and (2) development of a novel AM fabrication process that is capable of conformal printing and functional grading of multiple materials. In collaboration with the industrial partner, the investigators will develop appropriate performance and fabrication requirements and scale up the research results through direct involvement of students and faculty at the industry partner’s facility, while accounting for regulatory requirements.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.