Proceedings of the
World Congress on Micro and Nano Manufacturing (WCMNM 2022 )
19–22 September 2022, Lueven, Belgium
doi:10.3850/978-981-18-5180-3_RP25-0065
Microscale 3D Printing of Water Ice (3D-ICE)
1Department of Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15232 USA.
2Departments of Mechanical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Biological Sciences, and Computational Biology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15232 USA
3Departments of Mechanical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, and Material Science and Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15232, USA
ABSTRACT
Although significant advancements have been made in 3D printing, considerable challenges remain in printing mostly solid forms with intricate hierarchical channel geometries. We report a method to rapidly print the negative of the desired shape in water (ice), followed by casting the positive material and subsequent evacuation of the water, resulting in the desired positive form. Our novel 3D freeform ice printing process uniquely enables us to print directly in 3D space without the use of support structures. By controlling droplet ejection synchronized with build platform motions, we can fabricate micro-scale ice templates with complex shapes, circular cross-sections in a range of diameters, and branched structures with smooth transitions. Although using water as a building material makes our process especially attractive for biological or biomedical applications such as microfluidics and tissue engineering, the process can also be used for other applications, including fabrication of intricate cooling channels and pneumatic circuits for soft robots.
Keywords: Ice Printing, Micro-Casting, Freeform Printing.
1Department of Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15232 USA.
2Departments of Mechanical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Biological Sciences, and Computational Biology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15232 USA
3Departments of Mechanical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, and Material Science and Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15232, USA
ABSTRACT
Although significant advancements have been made in 3D printing, considerable challenges remain in printing mostly solid forms with intricate hierarchical channel geometries. We report a method to rapidly print the negative of the desired shape in water (ice), followed by casting the positive material and subsequent evacuation of the water, resulting in the desired positive form. Our novel 3D freeform ice printing process uniquely enables us to print directly in 3D space without the use of support structures. By controlling droplet ejection synchronized with build platform motions, we can fabricate micro-scale ice templates with complex shapes, circular cross-sections in a range of diameters, and branched structures with smooth transitions. Although using water as a building material makes our process especially attractive for biological or biomedical applications such as microfluidics and tissue engineering, the process can also be used for other applications, including fabrication of intricate cooling channels and pneumatic circuits for soft robots.
Keywords: Ice Printing, Micro-Casting, Freeform Printing.
