Polymer 3D Printing at Room Temperature

Reduces Waste, Allows for the Creation of Complex Polymeric Structures at Low Cost, and Enables Customization

This solvent-assisted 3D-printing process directly prints polymer structures at room temperature, enabling a customization not achievable with traditional manufacturing. Available polymer 3D-printing systems require elevated temperatures to plasticize the build material before dispensing, which leads to undesirable thermal residual stress in the finished product and high energy consumption. The market for plastic 3D printing was valued at $494 million in 2017 and should reach nearly $2 billion by 2023.

Researchers at the University of Florida have developed 3D-printing of polymer structures that reduces waste, allows for the construction of complex structures at low cost, and enables the making of multi-material parts using an in-situ mixing-then-printing approach while printing is done at room temperature.

Application

3D printing of a variety of polymers, mainly thermoplastics at room temperature

Advantages

• No heating required, enabling printing at room temperature and energy consumption reduction
• No minimum size or form of raw polymer materials, allowing printing of very small objects
• Used solvent can be extracted and reused, reducing waste
• Can utilize a variety of polymers not currently printable with other techniques, increasing the versatility and customization of 3D printing

Technology

This 3D-printing process uses polymers dissolved in a chemical solvent as the ink. The ink is printed in air at room temperature in an enclosed chamber. At the same time, a non-solvent is delivered as a nebulized mist to the part being printed in order to partially solidify it. The printed part can be further immersed into a coagulation bath to complete the solidification process. The consumed solvent and non-solvent are reclaimed for recycling and reuse.