Israel-Singapore Collaboration: Researchers Create Most Stretchable and UV Curable Elastomers Ever for 3D Printing

IMTS

Share this Article

huji_logoeng_horAs 3D printing has exploded into the mainstream, making an impact on nearly every industry worldwide, the technology has continued to evolve at an accelerated pace. Along with that, the study of materials and how they can improve 3D printing has been widely researched. Sometimes though, that works in the reverse, as 3D printing is used to improve the creation of the materials themselves—as in the case of elastomers.

Known as a versatile material that can be used in a wide range of applications, elastomers also offer both electrical and thermal insulation. Because of this they are currently popular for use in both electronics and smart biomedical devices, which require material that is flexible and adaptable. Manufacturing has been stumping modern researchers, however, due to the thermal curing process which requires those manufacturing it to cut, mold, and cast.

adma201606000-gra-0001-mRecent progress with elastomers is the result of research in a collaboration between the Singapore University of Technology and Design’s (SUTD) Digital Manufacturing and Design (DManD) Centre which is funded by the Singapore National Research Foundation (NRF), the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI), and the Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (CREATE). Together, this team has created elastomers for creating more complex geometric shapes; in fact, their new elastomers are incredibly flexible and can also be manufactured via 3D printing with UV curing.

dmand“We have developed the most stretchable 3D printable elastomer in the world. Our new elastomers can be stretched by up to 1100% which is more than five times the elongation at break of any commercially available elastomer that is suitable for UV curing based 3D printing techniques,” said Assistant Professor Qi (Kevin) Ge from the SUTD’s DManD Centre, who is one of the co-leaders in developing the SUV elastomers.

“The new SUV elastomers enable us to directly print complicated geometric structures and devices such as a 3D soft robotic gripper within an hour. Compared to traditional molding and casting methods, using UV curing based 3D printing with the SUV elastomers significantly reduces the fabrication time from many hours, even days, to a few minutes or hours as the complicated and time-consuming fabrication steps such as mold-building, molding/demolding, and part assembly are replaced by a single 3D printing step.”

HUJI has provided us this video to show the stretch possible in this material:

These research findings were recently published in the Journal of Advanced Materials, in ‘Highly Stretchable and UV Curable Elastomers for Digital Light Processing Based 3D Printing,’ by Dinesh K. Patel, Amir Hosein Sakhaei, Michael Layani, Biao Zhang, Qi Ge, and Shlomo Magdassi. The researchers explain that in their work so far they have been able to create ‘highly deformable complex 3D hollow structures’ like:

  • Balloons
  • Soft actuators
  • Grippers
  • Bucky ball electronical switches
A 3D printed conductive buckyball that works as an electric switch. (Photo Credit: Dinesh K. Patel)

A 3D printed conductive buckyball that works as an electric switch. [Photo: Dinesh K. Patel]

“Overall, we believe the SUV elastomers, together with the UV curing based 3D printing techniques, will significantly enhance the capability of fabricating soft and deformable 3D structures and devices including soft actuators and robots, flexible electronics, acoustic metamaterials, and many other applications,” said Professor Shlomo Magdassi, a co-leader of the project at HUJI and CREATE.

Discuss in the 3D Printed Elastomers forum at 3DPB.com.

Share this Article


Recent News

Liquid Metal 3D Printing Sector Emerges with Fluent Metal’s $5.5M Investment

3DPOD Episode 191: Amy Alexander, 3D Printing at the Mayo Clinic



Categories

3D Design

3D Printed Art

3D Printed Food

3D Printed Guns


You May Also Like

3DPOD Episode 190: Generative Design for 3D Printing with Novineer CEO Ali Tamijani

Ali Tamijani, a professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, has an extensive background in composites, tool pathing, and the development of functional 3D printed parts,...

Featured

3DPOD Episode 189: AMUG President Shannon VanDeren

Shannon VanDeren is a consultant in the 3D printing industry, focusing on implementation and integration for her company, Layered Manufacturing and Consulting. For nearly ten years, she has been involved...

3DPOD Episode 188: Clare Difazio of E3D – Growing the Industry, and Growing With the Industry

Clare DiFazio’s journey into the 3D printing industry was serendipitous, yet her involvement at critical moments has significantly influenced the sector. Her position as Head of Marketing & Product Strategy...

Featured

Printing Money Episode 15: 3D Printing Markets & Deals, with AM Research and AMPOWER

Printing Money returns with Episode 15! This month, NewCap Partners‘ Danny Piper is joined by Scott Dunham, Executive Vice President of Research at Additive Manufacturing (AM) Research, and Matthias Schmidt-Lehr,...