Grant: Research Tools and Instruments

The research program supported by the proposed tools will make a significant contribution to the emerging area of 3D/4D printing by enabling our group to explore and develop novel lab-on-a-printer (LOP) technology originally proposed by Walus. While many people are already quite familiar with 3D printing, the novel conceptual framework behind 4D printing will enable radically new devices and technology to be developed employing the unique 3D printing systems developed in this research program. The basic idea behind 4D printing involves structures that self-assemble and reconfigure after fabrication through 3D printing. The temporal dimension (the 4th D) opens up the potential configuration space of printed devices and structures in a very significant way - since the structure and its components can re-form post-printing. The proposed lab-on-a-printer technology being developed by Walus provides control over ink composition during the printing process and enables combinatorial development of 4D printing processes and structures as the composition and structure of individual printed variants can be modified without modifying any of the input materials. This capability is enabled by the integration of microfluidic modules into the printhead of a 3D printing system that can manipulate material composition on-the-fly; e.g. via integrated mixing. The proposed printhead flow dynamics characterization station consists of an inverted microscope, high-speed imaging system, flow controller, piezo-driver amplifier, and computer to control and synchronize activities amongst the components and will allow our team to design, characterize, optimize, and apply novel LOP technology being actively researched at UBC. The proposed research tool will provide high speed imaging capability of the dynamics of flow, material switching, and mixing in microfluidic LOP printheads. Since these processes are not stationary, the high speed imaging capability will allow us to develop and optimize new modules and systems specifically for this application, while the control and actuation system will provide the necessary tools to drive the LOP devices under test.