Property Analysis of Photo-Polymerization-Type 3D-Printed Structures Based on Multi-Composite Materials

Abstract

Additive manufacturing, commonly called 3D printing, has been studied extensively because it can be used to fabricate complex structures; however, polymer-based 3D printing has limitations in terms of implementing certain functionalities, so it is limited in the production of conceptual prototypes. As such, polymer-based composites and multi-material 3D printing are being studied as alternatives. In this study, a DLP 3D printer capable of printing multiple composite materials was fabricated using a movable separator and structures with various properties were fabricated by selectively printing two composite materials. After the specimen was fabricated based on the ASTM, the basic mechanical properties of the structure were compared through a 3-point bending test and a ball rebound test. Through this, it was shown that structures with various mechanical properties can be fabricated using the proposed movable-separator-based DLP process. In addition, it was shown that this process can be used to fabricate anisotropic structures, whose properties vary depending on the direction of the force applied to the structure. By fabricating multi-joint grippers with varying levels of flexibility, it was shown that the proposed process can be applied in the fabrication of soft robots as well.

Fabrication of 3D Printed Ceramic Part Using Photo-Polymerization Process

“…In 2018, a research group at Guangdong University of Technology made a photocurable resin containing approximately 20 vol% ZrO 2 powder to produce a printed specimen with a Vickers hardness of 12–13 GPa [ 15 ]. The PP method can overcome the limitations of the BJ and ME methods in terms of precision and size, so recent ceramic 3D printing research has mainly utilized the PP method [ 16 , 17 , 18 ].…”