EPFL researchers are concentrating on the following technology of sentimental actuators and robots with an elastomer-based ink for 3D printing objects with domestically altering mechanical properties, eliminating the necessity for cumbersome mechanical joints.
For engineers engaged on comfortable robotics or wearable units, protecting issues gentle is a continuing problem: heavier supplies require extra vitality to maneuver round, and—within the case of wearables or prostheses—trigger discomfort.
Elastomers are artificial polymers that may be manufactured with a variety of mechanical properties, from stiff to stretchy, making them a well-liked materials for such purposes. However manufacturing elastomers that may be formed into complicated 3D buildings that go from inflexible to rubbery has been unfeasible till now.
“Elastomers are normally forged in order that their composition can’t be modified in all three dimensions over brief size scales. To beat this drawback, we developed DNGEs: 3D-printable double community granular elastomers that may differ their mechanical properties to an unprecedented diploma,” says Esther Amstad, head of the Gentle Supplies Laboratory in EPFL’s College of Engineering.
Eva Baur, a Ph.D. scholar in Amstad’s lab, used DNGEs to print a prototype “finger,” full with inflexible “bones” surrounded by versatile “flesh.” The finger was printed to deform in a pre-defined manner, demonstrating the know-how’s potential to fabricate units which are sufficiently supple to bend and stretch, whereas remaining agency sufficient to govern objects.
With these benefits, the researchers consider that DNGEs might facilitate the design of sentimental actuators, sensors, and wearables freed from heavy, cumbersome mechanical joints. The analysis has been printed within the journal Superior Supplies.
Two elastomeric networks, twice as versatile
The important thing to the DNGEs’ versatility lies in engineering two elastomeric networks. First, elastomer microparticles are produced from oil-in-water emulsion drops. These microparticles are positioned in a precursor resolution, the place they take up elastomer compounds and swell up.
The swollen microparticles are then used to make a 3D printable ink, which is loaded right into a bioprinter to create a desired construction. The precursor is polymerized throughout the 3D-printed construction, making a second elastomeric community that rigidifies the complete object.
Whereas the composition of the primary community determines the construction’s stiffness, the second determines its fracture toughness, which means that the 2 networks will be fine-tuned independently to realize a mix of stiffness, toughness, and fatigue resistance.
Using elastomers over hydrogels—the fabric utilized in state-of-the-art approaches—has the added benefit of making buildings which are water-free, making them extra secure over time. To high it off, DNGEs will be printed utilizing commercially accessible 3D printers.
“The fantastic thing about our method is that anybody with a normal bioprinter can use it,” Amstad emphasizes.
One thrilling potential software of DNGEs is in units for motion-guided rehabilitation, the place the power to assist motion in a single route whereas limiting it in one other could possibly be extremely helpful.
Additional improvement of DNGE know-how might lead to prosthetics, and even movement guides to help surgeons. Sensing distant actions, for instance in robot-assisted crop harvesting or underwater exploration, is one other space of software.
Amstad says that the Gentle Supplies Lab is already engaged on the following steps towards creating such purposes by integrating lively components—akin to responsive supplies and electrical connections—into DNGE buildings.
Extra data:
Eva Baur et al, 3D Printing of Double Community Granular Elastomers with Domestically Various Mechanical Properties, Superior Supplies (2024). DOI: 10.1002/adma.202313189
Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne
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An ink for 3D-printing versatile units with out mechanical joints (2024, April 18)
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