Heterogeneous and Gradient Additive Manufacturing Technologies

ABSTRACT:A machine to support the research and development of additive manufacturing (AM) multi-material 3D printing technologies will be developed, which will enable the fabrication of 3D objects with heterogeneous compositions, i.e., objects that are composed of two or more materials that differ in their physical and/or chemical properties and are fused together to build up the object. Using existing inkjet and powder-bed fusion hardware, Multiple-Material Additive Manufacturing (MMAM) will be demonstrated by manufacturing homogeneous metal, nanocomposite, and polymer parts and monolithically integrating heterogeneous parts with graded, temperature-compensated, and fused mechanical interfaces. It will be shown that, as the assemblies are built layer by layer, it is possible to design internal features and passages that could not be cast or machined using more traditional manufacturing approaches. The Phase I effort will also address the need for numeric optimizers and CAD packages that generate the print command files using material and print-hardware parameters.BENEFIT:The ability to place optical, metal dielectric and magneto-dielectric nanocomposites into 3D freeform structures will allow for the innovation to be used both for prototyping and manufacturing complex heterogeneous objects, including lens assemblies, medical devices, tools, automotive parts, and a wide variety of other consumer and industrial products.