Reactive Silicone Inks for 3D Printing Using Microfluidic Mixers

3D打印(加法制造)是一种颠覆性技术，正在迅速进入商业按需打印制造和社区。有机硅用于从隐形眼镜到计算机键盘弹簧的各种应用。它们固化成橡胶的速度太慢，不能用作3D打印机的墨水。我们建议开发可直接从现有四色喷墨打印机打印的快速固化有机硅油墨，并使用我们开发的微流控混合器，对商用3D打印机的混合硅胶浆料进行四色打印。这些活性油墨将带来许多好处。它们将被用作现有硅胶或其他材料设备的表面处理。更重要的是，按需印刷设备可以直接由硅胶制成，其中的物理性能可以以空间控制的方式进行广泛的调节。因此，硬度、附着力、折射率、水润湿性和其他特征可以编码到设备的不同部分中。最初，单一涂层将扩展到用于微流体和眼科应用的多通道涂层。有了膏体打印机，就可以制备更大的生物医学设备。

3D printing (additive manufacturing) is a disruptive technology making rapid inroads into commercial print-on-demand manufacturing and into the community. Silicones used in applications ranging from contact lenses to computer keyboard springs. They cure into rubbers too slowly to be used as 'inks' in 3D printers. We propose to develop rapidly curing silicone inks that can be printed directly from current 4-color inkjet printers and using microfluidic mixers we develop, 4-color printing of mixed silicone pastes from commercial 3D printers. Many advantages will accrue from these reactive inks. They will be used as surface treatments of existing devices based on silicone or other materials. More importantly, print-on-demand devices can be directly made from silicone in which the physical properties can be broadly tuned in a spatially-controlled manner. Thus, hardness, adhesiveness, refractive index, water wettability and other features can be encoded into different parts of the device. Initially, single coatings will be extended to multipass coatings for microfluidics and ophthalmic applications. With the paste printer, larger biomedical devices can be prepared.