Daniel Rau, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering on the College of Wyoming, has acquired a $198,932 grant from the Nationwide Science Basis to analysis 3D printing of soppy supplies. The grant, awarded by NSF’s engineering analysis initiation program, will fund Rau’s examine of why present 3D printing processes produce unstable outcomes when making an attempt to print elastomers and different versatile supplies.
Present 3D printing applied sciences primarily produce exhausting, brittle plastic gadgets, leaving comfortable materials purposes largely unexplored. Rau’s analysis venture, titled “Bettering the Vat Photopolymerization 3D-Printing of Comfortable Elastomers By a Deeper Understanding of Course of Dynamics,” focuses on understanding why additive manufacturing processes create warped blobs slightly than purposeful merchandise when printing rubber-like supplies.
The analysis will make use of two specialised strategies: photorheology and X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy (XPCS). Rau is collaborating with researchers at Brookhaven Nationwide Laboratory in New York, the place he’ll use a 2.5-kilometer synchrotron to review the curing technique of photopolymers at a microscopic stage. “This explicit additive manufacturing course of offers with a very distinctive class of supplies referred to as photopolymers. They’re liquid; you hit them with UV gentle — consider actually sturdy daylight — they usually solidify,” Rau says.
The analysis goals to create pointers for manufacturing processes tailor-made to comfortable supplies, with potential purposes in biomedical gadgets, wearable know-how, and protecting tools. Rau, who joined UW’s Division of Mechanical Engineering in fall 2024, notes the potential for medical purposes: “There’s numerous potential. You realize, the human physique may be very comfortable. So, there are numerous issues the human physique likes comfortable, whether or not it’s implants or wearable gadgets.”
Supply: uwyo.edu
