Injection continuous liquid interface production of 3D objects.

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Mechanical Engineering
• Chemical Engineering

Background:

• Additive manufacturing requires faster print speeds, higher viscosity resins, and simultaneous multi-resin printing.
• Existing methods like continuous liquid interface production (CLIP) have limitations in speed, resin viscosity, and material patterning.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce and characterize a novel ultraviolet-based photopolymerization 3D printing process.
• To demonstrate the capabilities of injection continuous liquid interface production (iCLIP) for advanced additive manufacturing.

Main Methods:

• Development of a 3D printing process utilizing a continuous liquid interface ('dead zone') fed by microfluidic channels.
• Mechanical feeding of resin at elevated pressures through dynamically created microfluidic channels integral to the part.
• Characterization of process parameters governing the iCLIP method.

Main Results:

• Achieved 5- to 10-fold acceleration in printing speeds compared to CLIP.
• Enabled the use of resins an order of magnitude more viscous than those compatible with CLIP.
• Demonstrated simultaneous patterning of different resins in all Cartesian coordinates for heterogeneous objects.

Conclusions:

• iCLIP offers significant advancements in 3D printing speed, material compatibility, and multi-material fabrication.
• The process is suitable for printing complex composites, multimaterial features, and tunable lattices with controlled properties.