New 3D printing approach can ‘mimic natural structures more accurately’

Researchers have developed a new 3D printing method that could make it possible to create artificial objects with the robust internal properties of natural cellular structures.

A team from the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences have created a means of printing materials with independently tunable macro and microscale porosity, using a ceramic foam ink.

This makes it possible to digitally pattern cellular microstructures within larger cellular macrostructures, with the resulting object consisting of air surrounded by ceramic material on multiple length scales.

In this way, the team was able to print lightweight hexagonal and triangular honeycomb shapes with tunable geometry, density and stiffness, allowing them to specifically calibrate the material’s mechanical, thermal, and transport characteristics in various ways.

Senior author Jennifer Lewis, professor of biologically-inspired engineering at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, said: “By expanding the compositional space of printable materials, we can produce lightweight structures with exceptional stiffness … This work represents an important step toward the scalable fabrication of architected porous materials.”

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