I-Corps: High-temperature 3D Printer for High-Performance Polymers

Virginia Polytechnic Institute And State University, Blacksburg VA

Investigators

Abstract

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is to enable widespread adoption of 3D-printing of high-performance, high-temperature polymers via a desktop-scale, low-cost printing platform. Existing 3D printers capable of processing performance polymers have special power requirements, large footprint, and are cost prohibitive due to their required high-temperature printing environments. This project's novel printer design enables printing these performance polymers at a desktop-scale and price, therefore bridging the gap between scale, cost, and material performance. The mechanical properties of parts printed with the developed machine are equivalent to those printed with commercial industrial-scale systems. Example use cases include the deployment of printers where a large printer may be infeasible and in providing redundancy in manufacturing for faster, more agile production of parts. This printer will be able to fabricate stronger products than existing desktop scale 3D printers and allows these parts to be designed for applications in new environments. This I-Corps project further develops a desktop-scale 3D-printer designed to print high-performance plastics. Performance plastics offer higher strength parts that are functional in high-temperature or and/or corrosive environments. However, the fabrication of performance plastics via fused filament fabrication (FFF) 3D-printing requires processing in a high-temperature environment to prevent deformation of printed parts and to improve parts' mechanical properties. This project develops a FFF embodiment that features an inverted architecture, in conjunction with a special heating chamber, to maintain a sufficiently high-temperature environment for processing high-performance plastics. Since the design exploits natural convection currents to selectively achieve high temperatures in the build area, this FFF embodiment does not require large heaters or cooling units for the mechatronic elements, thus reducing the cost and power requirements when compared to current solutions. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.