3D printing has made significant advances in recent years, particularly in the area of composite materials. These materials, which consist of a combination of two or more materials, offer increased strength and flexibility and are particularly in demand in industries such as aerospace, medicine and electronics.
Researchers at ETH Zurich have unveiled a novel 3D printing method for composite materials. The process, known as SonoPrint, uses sound waves to position microparticles during the printing process to improve mechanical properties.
Previous approaches to strengthening 3D-printed objects are often limited to specific particles and arrangement patterns. SonoPrint aims to overcome this by allowing a wide variety of particles to be precisely placed, regardless of size or texture.
According to the developers, this allows composites to be tailor-made for specific applications and performance to be optimized. SonoPrint combines acoustic particle positioning with volumetric 3D printing, which exposes the entire structure at once.
In tests with glass, metal and plastic microparticles, the researchers were able to create various arrangements such as lines or circles. The tensile strength of the printed samples with positioned particles increased by up to 38 percent, and the compressive strength by as much as 75 percent.
According to the scientists, SonoPrint could revolutionize 3D printing of composite materials. Controllable amplification through acoustic positioning of particles opens up new possibilities in fields such as aerospace, medicine and electronics, they say.
More details are published in the paper, “SonoPrint: Acoustically Assisted Volumetric 3D Printing for Composites.” The authors of the paper: Prajwal Agrawal, Shengyang Zhuang, Simon Dreher, Sarthak Mitter and Daniel Ahmed.
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