Reactive Fusion - Revolutionary Technology for 3D Printing Polyurethane Product

反应性融合（RF）是一种新型增材制造（3D打印）工艺，其原理是聚合物粉末沉积，然后沉积单体/低聚物流体，渗透粉末层并在沉积颗粒和单体/低聚物本身之间提供化学键合，从而形成连续均匀的材料沉积。它有可能提供基于工业喷墨的3D打印技术的处理速度，结合传统的聚合物产品生产方法（模塑等）的产品强度水平和广泛的材料选择。该工艺类似于基于粘合剂喷射的AM技术和HP的多喷嘴熔融系统，然而，RF不是使用粘合剂或熔融剂将粉末熔化在一起，而是使用特殊油墨通过化学共价键合将粉末联合收割机结合，以在整个印刷产品中实现更均匀的特性。平台3D打印工艺，消除了AM聚合物产品分层的主要当前问题，并且以高速和低成本打印产品，提供复杂的产品结构能力，并获得PU基聚合物的全部性能，这些性能目前只能通过传统的长交货期获得，我们的市场研究表明，增材制造产品需求未得到满足的多个工业部门对该技术感兴趣，已经确定了几个早期技术采用者-潜在市场包括自动化/机器人，修复/矫形，牙科，在汽车、医疗器械、鞋类和体育产业领域有着进一步的商业兴趣。我们相信RF可以取代目前传统聚氨酯产品生产的很大一部分，其中使用AM是经济/可行的。Reactive Fusion Ltd拥有专业知识和动力，根据诺丁汉大学多年的研究，在化学，设备和服务方面开发和商业化其创新的RF技术。该项目的主要目标是将该技术从实验室规模转移到工业规模，为潜在客户和早期投资者创建产品和工艺示范。使用在扩大增材制造材料和建造/修改增材制造机械/部件方面具有广泛专业知识的分包商，将支持项目利用拟议资源和可控风险水平实现其目标。

Reactive Fusion (RF) is a novel Additive Manufacturing (3D Printing) process based on the principle of polymer powder deposition followed by the deposition of a monomeric / oligomeric fluid that infiltrates the powder layer and provides chemical bonding, between the deposited particles and the monomers/oligomers themselves, creating a continuous and homogenous material deposition. It has the potential to offer industry inkjet based 3D printing technique's processing speeds, combined with traditional polymer product production methods (moulding etc) levels of product strength and wide material choices. This process is similar to binder jetting based AM techniques and HP's multi-jet fusion system, however instead of using binders or fusion agents to melt the powder together, RF used a special ink to combine powder via chemical covalent bonding in order to achieve more homogeneous properties throughout a printed product.RF technology offers a patented, platform 3D printing process that removes the major current problem of AM polymer product delamination, and which prints products at high speed and low cost, delivers complex product structure capability and accesses the full properties of PU based polymers that is only currently available via traditional, long lead-time, expensive injection tooling and moulding.Our market research has shown the technology is of interest to multiple industrial sector with unmet AM product needs, several early technology adopters have been identified - potential markets include Automation/Robotics, Prosthetic/Orthotics, Dentistry, with further commercial interest evident in Automotive, Medical device, Footwear and the Sports industry sectors. We believe RF can displace a significant proportion of current traditional polyurethane product production, where use of AM is economical/feasible.Reactive Fusion Ltd has the expertise and drive to develop and commercialize its innovative RF technology in terms of chemistry, equipment and services based on several years of research from the University of Nottingham. The projects key objectives are to move the technology from lab scale, to industrial scale, creating product and process demonstrators for potential customers and early stage investors. Using subcontractors with extensive expertise in scaling up AM materials and building/modifying AM machinery/components, will support the project to achieve its goals with the resources proposed and with a managed level of risk.