3D Printing: Micro-Architected Metamaterials

"Titled "Ultralight, Ultrastiff Mechanical Metamaterials," the article describes the team's development of micro-architected metamaterials -- artificial materials with properties not found in nature -- that maintain a nearly constant stiffness per unit mass density, even at ultralow density.

"We have fabricated an extreme, lightweight material by making these thin-film hollow tubes," said Spadaccini, who also leads LLNL's Center for Engineered Materials, Manufacturing and Optimization."


[link to www.sciencenewsline.com]

"The observed high stiffness is shown to be true with multiple constituent materials such as polymers, metals and ceramics, according to the research team's findings.

"Our micro-architected materials have properties that are governed by their geometric layout at the microscale, as opposed to chemical composition," said LLNL Engineer Chris Spadaccini, corresponding author of the article, who led the joint research team. "We fabricated these materials with projection microstereolithography."

This additive micromanufacturing process involves using a micromirror display chip to create high-fidelity 3-D parts one layer at a time from photosensitive feedstock materials. It allows the team to rapidly generate materials with complex 3-D microscale geometries that are otherwise challenging or in some cases, impossible to fabricate."


[link to www.rdmag.com]

"For example, they used polymer as a template to fabricate the microlattices, which were then coated with a thin-film of metal ranging from 200 to 500 nanometers thick. The polymer core was then thermally removed, leaving a hollow-tube metal strut, resulting in ultralight weight metal lattice materials.

"We have fabricated an extreme, lightweight material by making these thin-film hollow tubes," said Spadaccini, who also leads LLNL's Center for Engineered Materials, Manufacturing and Optimization. "But it was all enabled by the original polymer template structure."

The team repeated the process with polymer mircolattices, but instead of coating it with metal, ceramic was used to produce a thin-film coating about 50 nanometers thick. The density of this ceramic micro-architected material is similar to aerogel.

"It's among the lightest materials in the world," Spadaccini said. "However, because of its micro-architected layout, it performs with four orders of magnitude higher stiffness than aerogel at a comparable density."

Lastly, the team produced a third ultrastiff micro-architected material using a slightly different process. They loaded a polymer with ceramic nanoparticles to build a polymer-ceramic hybrid microlattice. The polymer was removed thermally, allowing the ceramic particles to densify into a solid. The new solid ceramic material also showed similar strength and stiffness properties."


[link to www.sciencecodex.com]

I ain't flying until I have wings

You could make a sweet flying machine out of this metamaterial.

Cool

Wonder how long before it starts being used for stuff?

great post op...5 stars

thanks, i figured at least two or three people might find this cool

I posted about this 5 years ago morans, it's exo-universal technology. They just now introduce it to the slaves.

This will ruin the whole "carbon fiber" manufacturing industry.
Or, they will embrace it start using it too.

got a link?

Hush Nancy! 5* Boris :) Awesome!

This one is similar / more illustrative of practical use.
Also, very cute :P

[link to www.youtube.com (secure)]

sheesh!! you had me at micro-archtected metamaterials.

some crazy shit

The work of the NUP/UPNA focusses on the applying of metamaterials to smart phased array-type antennae. As Pablo Rodríguez-Ulibarri, author of the main contributions, pointed out, "we have managed to improve the shortcomings that existed when it comes to directing the beam of the antenna in different directions, the so-called blind zones in pointing.The most innovative contribution is that we have developed a radome (the coating that protects the antenna) based on metamaterials —metaradome— which is capable of improving the response of the so-called blind angles without modifying the prototype antenna in any way. It consists of a thin film designed following concepts inspired by metamaterials, which acts as if it were a lens and allows the beam of the antenna to behave much more efficiently compared with what has been achieved until now."



Miguel Beruete, the technical supervisor of the work, stressed that "this work signifies in some way a milestone within our line of research into volumetric metamaterials. Our previous experience in metalenses (or metamaterial lenses) has been a key component in the success of this project.At the same time the development of this metaradome has provided us with essential knowledge to achieve the breakthrough in the design of new metamaterial-based devices."

[link to phys.org]