New Metal–Plastic Hybrid Additive Manufacturing for Precise Fabrication of Arbitrary Metal Patterns on External and Even Internal Surfaces of 3D Plastic Structures

Abstract

Constructing precise metal patterns on complex three-dimensional (3D) plastic parts allows the fabrication of functional devices for advanced applications. However, it is currently expensive and requires complex processes. This study demonstrates a process for the fabrication of 3D metal–plastic composite structures with arbitrarily complex shapes. A light-cured resin is modified to prepare the active precursor allowing subsequent electroless plating (ELP). A multimaterial digital light processing 3D printer was newly developed to fabricate the parts containing regions made of either standard resin or active precursor nested within each other. Selective 3D ELP processing of such parts provided various metal–plastic composite parts having complicated hollow structures with specific topological relationships with the resolution of 40 μm. Using this technique, 3D devices that cannot be manufactured by traditional methods are possible, and metal patterns can be produced inside plastic parts as a means of further miniaturizing electronics. The proposed method can also generate metal coatings exhibiting improved adhesion of metal to substrate. Finally, several sensors composed of different functional materials and specific metal patterns were designed and fabricated. The present results demonstrate the viability of the proposed method and suggest potential applications in the fields of 3D electronics, wearable devices, and sensors.

Additive Manufacturing in Australian Small to Medium Enterprises: Vat Polymerisation Techniques, Case Study and Pathways to Industry 4.0 Competitiveness

“…Once the additive phase is complete, SM techniques like computer numerical control (CNC), milling or precision machining are used to refine part geometry, achieve tight tolerances and add fine details. HM can reduce material waste by adding material only to appropriate areas and then removing excessive amounts of material through subtractive operations [41]. The combination of additive and subtractive processes enables the creation of intricate geometries through AM techniques, which are followed by precise subtractive operations to achieve high tolerances and smooth surface finish.…”

Laser‐Activated Selective Electroless Plating on 3D Structures via Additive Manufacturing for Customized Electronics

“…[3] Song et al dissolved PdCl 2 , a common catalyst for ELP, into the photopolymer and printed it to build a dualmaterial structure together with the original photopolymer to achieve selective metallization. [18] Unfortunately, multimaterial VPP required complex procedures of photopolymer switching, sample cleaning, and building platform aiming, which largely increased building time and also made the equipment costly.…”

Metal–Plastic Hybrid Additive Manufacturing to Realize Small-Scale Self-Propelled Catalytic Engines

“…Herein, we report a simple and rapid method to manufacture microengines with a modified resin in a single step. Previously, our group has reported 3D printing of complex 3D structures with a catalyst resin, where resins are embedded with catalyst particles prior to the printing to facilitate the electroless deposition (ELD) of desired metals selectively or nonselectively on these 3D structures. − Here, we adopt the modification of resin to print the microengine in a single-step process through a customized commercial digital light processing (DLP) printer. Resin is modified by adding a metal salt solution to the catalyst of interest.…”

“…In such a scenario, 3D printing or additive manufacturing stands as a promising method to develop such processes to realize microengines in a simple and rapid manner. 3D printing stands among other methods due to its capability of manufacturing sophisticated 3D structures with fine details in a vast range of materials. , Further, the technology offers printing with modified materials to enhance the properties of the printed structures. − …”