Nozzle Innovations That Improve Capacity and Capabilities of Multimaterial Additive Manufacturing
Date
2024-05-13
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
ACS Engineering Au
Abstract
Multimaterial additive manufacturing incorporates multiple species within a single 3D-printed object to enhance its material properties and functionality. This technology could play a key role in distributed manufacturing. However, conventional layer-by-layer construction methods must operate at low volumetric throughputs to maintain fine feature resolution. One approach to overcome this challenge and increase production capacity is to structure multimaterial components in the printhead prior to deposition. Here we survey four classes of multimaterial nozzle innovations, nozzle arrays, coextruders, static mixers, and advective assemblers, designed for this purpose. Additionally, each design offers unique capabilities that provide benefits associated with accessible architectures, interfacial adhesion, material properties, and even living-cell viability. Accessing these benefits requires trade-offs, which may be mitigated with future investigation. Leveraging decades of research and development of multiphase extrusion equipment can help us engineer the next generation of 3D-printing nozzles and expand the capabilities and practical reach of multimaterial additive manufacturing.
Description
This article was originally published in ACS Engineering Au. The version of record is available at: https://doi.org/10.1021/acsengineeringau.4c00001. © 2024 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society. This publication is licensed under CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Keywords
multimaterial additive manufacturing, 3D printing, direct-ink writing, nozzle design, nozzle arrays, coextrusion, static mixing, advective assembly
Citation
McCauley, Patrick J., and Alexandra V. Bayles. “Nozzle Innovations That Improve Capacity and Capabilities of Multimaterial Additive Manufacturing.” ACS Engineering Au, May 13, 2024, acsengineeringau.4c00001. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsengineeringau.4c00001.