I-Corps: Improved Approach to Polymer Sintering

University Of South Florida, Tampa FL

Investigators

Abstract

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project will increase American manufacturing competitiveness and open new product opportunities. The technology has the potential to expand the application space for 3D printing by removing current limitations on materials, achievable properties, and processing speed. This will allow users to customize parts to user needs and reduce lead times for industries from medical devices to aerospace, to consumer products. There are many opportunities in the 3D printing industry because it is rapidly growing (>15-20% per year). The new approaches to manufacturing are transforming a wide variety of industries despite many pressing technical issues that remain. The technology behind this project can open new markets/industries for these technologies by addressing some of the critical limitations. This I-Corps project will evaluate a modified process for additive manufacturing (3D Printing) with polymers from a powder feedstock. This is typically done by scanning the powder bed with a laser to locally fuse the powder particles together. An alternative method is developed here that allows for economical fusing of the powder over longer time periods. Current laser-based methods are constrained to utilizing a few specialized material types due to the process constraints. While these work for many applications, there are many applications that require specialized materials that cannot be used in the current additive manufacturing methods. This technology has the potential to expand the range of materials that can be successfully processed. Additionally, the material properties produced by current methods are reduced relative to those obtained using traditional approaches such as injection molding.