7th January 2021 11:08 am 7th January 2021 12:50 pm
Engineers at the University of Maryland (UMD) have created a morphing nozzle that provides a new way of controlling fibre alignment during 3D printing.
The morphing nozzle in action, 3D printing fiber-filled composite materials with on-demand control of fiber alignment for 4D printing (Image: UMD)
Fibre-filled composites are made up of short fibres that can enhance properties such as part strength or electrical conductivity. The challenge is that these properties are based on the orientations of the short fibres, which has been difficult to control during the 3D printing process.
“When 3D printing with the morphing nozzle, the power lies on their side actuators, which can be inflated like a balloon to change the shape of the nozzle, and in turn, the orientations of the fibres,” said Ryan Sochol, an assistant professor in mechanical engineering and director of the Bioinspired Advanced Manufacturing (BAM) Laborato
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IMAGE: The morphing nozzle in action, 3D printing fiber-filled composite materials with on-demand control of fiber alignment for 4D printing. For a larger image, visit: go.umd.edu/morphing. view more
Credit: University of Maryland
Engineers at the University of Maryland (UMD) have created a new shape-changing or morphing 3D printing nozzle that was featured as a Frontispiece in the January 5th issue of the journal
Advanced Materials Technologies.
The team s morphing nozzle offers researchers new means for 3D printing fiber-filled composites - materials made up of short fibers that boost special properties over traditional 3D-printed parts, such as enhancing part strength or electrical conductivity. The challenge is that these properties are based on the directions or orientations of the short fibers, which has been difficult to control during the 3D printing process, until now.