MRI: Acquisition of a Multi-Material Additive Manufacturing Platform for Multi-Disciplinary Research and Education

University Of South Florida, Tampa FL

Investigators

Abstract

Additive Manufacturing is a new way of manufacturing low volume, light weight and complex parts. Compared to traditional manufacturing processes, additive manufacturing can improve manufacturing speed and geometric freedom. By decreasing the cost of low-volume production, it has revolutionized product development and enabled new industries. However, these accomplishments so far have largely used additive manufacturing in a single component or in a series of adjacent components with similar material requirements. The full transformative impact of additive manufacturing will be realized when it is able to fabricate an entire functional system directly. This project will acquire a multi-material additive manufacturing platform that includes a photonic curing system. This manufacturing platform provides a unique ability to integrate multiple processes and materials in a single machine. This open-architecture system will be hosted in the multi-user Nanotechnology Research and Education Center at University of South Florida (USF) to provide a research platform necessary to advance multi-material manufacturing of entire systems, which will complement the existing facilities for material processing and preparation, metrology and materials characterization. The PI and co-PIs from three USF colleges will work with their collaborators not only in USF, but also from other institutes across the State of Florida to maximize the value of this equipment. This new equipment will be used to enhance research activities, support commercialization of promising discoveries, enrich graduate and undergraduate education, and support outreach activities at K-12 schools, community college, and professional training programs. These partnerships will introduce K-12 students and teachers to additive manufacturing, educate tomorrow's technicians to use and maintain the equipment, and support professional development workshops for local engineers. Highly functional printed systems require the combination of different electrical, structural, thermal, and chemical properties. Single process additive manufacturing systems are unable to integrate sufficient materials to accomplish these requirements. By integrating multi-material/multi-method deposition and rapid area-based curing, the ability to combine multiple materials is dramatically expanded. The proposed system to be acquired includes direct write, thermal extrusion, laser machining compatibility, and pick-and-place insertion, all combined on a high-precision linear-motor-controlled gantry with 10 nm resolution. Additionally, the fast thermal processing enables metastable structures and graded properties. This capability will enable multi-disciplinary research across the hierarchy of multi-material additive manufacturing. The equipment will create exciting new areas for collaboration between engineering (chemical, electrical, industrial, and mechanical), chemistry, physics, and pharmacy (nanomedicine).