Universal Acoustic Digital Light Processing 3D Printing

3D printing, or additive manufacturing, has the potential to drastically transform fields such as architecture, aviation, sportswear, robotics, biomedical devices, implants, and tissue engineering. There is an increasing demand for 3D printing of reinforced composites and biological architectures. The 3D printing of composites is technically challenging due to the need to controllably orient and print microparticles. Commonly used 3D printing technologies achieve customizable prototypes using only a single material, and to date, few printers permit the incorporation of microparticles and living cells. Consequently, current methods allow only limited customization of the mechanical properties of printed objects. Acoustics permit microparticles to be manipulated noninvasively. In this proposal, UniADLP, we will develop a novel acoustic-based 3D printer with which microparticles can be aligned and selectively polymerized to develop a user-defined 3D printed object. We will assimilate homogeneous and heterogeneous microparticles while dynamically orienting them during the printing. This proposal will open up a new and exciting area in the field of additive manufacturing, using ultrasound to print reinforced architectures.