I-Corps: Microheater Array Powder Sintering Technology for Additive Manufacturing

I-Corps项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是高速增材制造技术的发展，微加热器阵列粉末烧结（MAPS）。所提出的技术可用于大量生产各种工程材料，其成本与传统制造业相比具有竞争力。这可能会对制造业产生变革性的影响，促进向全数字化制造的过渡，实现大规模定制，并改变产品的制造和消费方式。虽然拟议的MAPS技术可能会影响许多不同的行业（例如，印刷电子，3D打印），因为它在能耗，设备成本，制造时间和过程控制方面具有显着优势，但最初的重点是MAPS在快速原型和小批量生产塑料部件方面的潜力。与市场上其他现有的解决方案（例如，选择性激光烧结）相比，MAPS可以更好地服务于几个领域的市场需求，包括打印过程的反馈控制，以获得更好的零件质量，更高的打印速度，以及更低的设备和拥有成本。这可能会减少采用增材制造的障碍，并加速向数字化制造的过渡。I-Corps项目的基础是开发用于增材制造的微加热器阵列粉末烧结（MAPS）技术。所提出的技术使用微加热器阵列以数字方式提供聚焦的热模式，并通过将微加热器阵列放置在靠近粉末表面的位置来选择性地烧结粉末颗粒。与选择性激光烧结（SLS）（使用激光将粉末颗粒与点向扫描融合）相比，MAPS使用微加热器阵列，该阵列可能包括数千个微加热器元件，用于线向或层向打印。这些印刷工艺可以显著提高印刷速度。与高成本激光器相比，微加热器阵列是一组微小的薄膜电阻器，可以使用MEMS制造技术以相对低成本制造。此外，MAPS具有更低的功耗。与SLS激光器通常需要10瓦或100瓦的功率相比，每个微加热器通常消耗100毫瓦的功率来实现类似的结果。此外，MAPS实现了简单的反馈控制。与激光在不知道温度的情况下以开环方式提供能量相比，微加热器也是一个温度传感器，它允许精确的温度控制并实现反馈过程控制。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of a high-speed additive manufacturing technology, Microheater Array Powder Sintering (MAPS). The proposed technology may be used for high-volume production with a wide range of engineering materials at a cost competitive with traditional manufacturing. This may have a transformative impact on the manufacturing industry by facilitating the transition to fully digital manufacturing, enabling mass customization, and transforming how products are made and consumed. While the proposed MAPS technology potentially may impact many different industries (e.g., printed electronics, 3D printing) due to its significant advantages in energy consumption, equipment cost, manufacturing time, and process control, the initial focus is on the potential of MAPS for rapid prototyping and small volume production of plastic parts. Compared to other existing solutions in the market (e.g., selective laser sintering), MAPS may better serve the market needs in several areas including feedback control of the printing process for better part quality, higher printing speed, and lower cost of equipment and ownership. This may reduce the barrier of adopting additive manufacturing and accelerate the transition to digital manufacturing. This I-Corps project is based on the development of a Microheater Array Powder Sintering (MAPS) technology for additive manufacturing. The proposed technology uses a microheater array to digitally deliver a focused heat pattern and selectively sinter powder particles by placing the microheater array in close proximity to the powder surface. Compared to selective laser sintering (SLS) that uses a laser to fuse powder particles with point-wise scanning, MAPS uses an microheater array that may include thousands of microheater elements for line-wise or layer-wise printing. These printing processes enable significantly higher printing speeds. In contrast to high-cost lasers, a microheater array is an array of tiny thin-film resistors that may be fabricated at relatively low-cost using MEMS fabrication techniques. In addition, MAPS has much lower power consumption. Compared to a laser that typically requires 10s or 100s of watts of power for SLS, each microheater typically consumes 100s of milliwatts of power to achieve similar results. Moreover, MAPS enables easy feedback control. In contrast to a laser that delivers energy in an open-loop fashion without knowing the temperature, a microheater is also a temperature sensor, which allows for precise temperature control and enables feedback process control.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.