Principal Investigator David Gossard
Three Dimensional Printing is a solid free form fabrication process which creates parts directly from a computer model by depositing in layers. Each layer is created by depositing powder and selectively joining the powder with binder applied by a modulated ink-jet printhead. The application of 3D Printing to the manufacture of surface textures is explored, where the geometric freedom of 3D Printing is used to create repetitive millimeter and sub-millimeter surface structures with overhangs and undercuts. A related aspect of the work concerns the development of computer representations of these complex structures.
In one investigation, a 'mushroom field' surface texture was modeled and printed. Each mushroom consists of a cylinder with ball on top. These features are printed in a hexagonal array with each feature parallel to the local surface normal of a complex curved surface. In another investigation, textures were printed into ceramic molds. The textures were transferred to metal (tin-lead, CoCr) castings as positive surface features with overhangs and undercuts and typical dimensions of 700 x 350 x 350 micrometers. These cast textures could be applied to bone fixation in orthopedic implants.