Multi-Material 3D Printing

Digital manufacturing has garnered significant exposure recently with many announcements of new 3D printers, improved capabilities to print different materials, and the White House’s announcement of the creation of a Digital Manufacturing Institute. These recent developments in digital manufacturing are primarily focused on techniques that create individual parts for subsequent assembly, with the most sophisticated printers allowing combinations of several similar structural materials. The most interesting application of 3D printing today is to create unique mechanical structures that cannot be obtained by other means. 3D printing is also used as a prototyping technique, the final object being manufactured by conventional means. In order to expand 3D printing and making it more versatile, new processes are needed that are able to deposit a broader range of materials (plastics of different characteristics, as well as metals), along with embedded electronic circuits consisting of both printed and conventional components. Such printed objects go beyond conventional mechanical features by embedding optical and electrical functionalities, such as sensor; all in complex structures that are difficult to produce with existing manufacturing methods. Coupled with user-friendly design software it becomes possible to analyze complex designs in order to determine structural properties as well as model electrical and mechanical operation, explore materials compatibility and diagnose other aspects of the design which may cause fabrication problems. We have demonstrated a printed wireless sensor as an example of a complex functional object. The circuit senses pressure and temperature embedded into a shoe insert and comprises inductor and antenna structures for communication. In our presentation we will describe our progress in printing integrated multi-material objects, including a collection of our latest demonstrators.