Grant: Idea to Innovation

Inspired by the fact that additive manufacturing (AM) has been declared as a key technology that will change the entire manufacturing enterprise by 2030, the US President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology has identified the importance of AM systems and processes development in promoting competitiveness of advanced manufacturing in North America. To address some of the shortcomings of this area of interest, the research group at the UW has invented a novel AM process that enables the fabrication of complex-shaped structures with varying porosity ranging from ~200 to 500 micron. This NSERC-I2I project aims at the enhancement and full automation of the developed AM workstation to make it ready for operation in real-world applications, e.g., the manufacture of porous biodegradable implants. The need to realize the rapid fabrication of functional structures with varying macro- and micro-sized porosity (density) is of prime importance to many sectors. This requirement can be addressed through the developed AM technique, which would enable the insertion/injection of macro- and micro-sized sacrificial porogens on/in the particulate ceramic and metallic elements. This feature can potentially increase controllability over the size and distribution of pores that in turn introduces a new platform for developing unique products with value added proposition. The project will include five key objectives: (i) optimization of porogens insertion mechanism; (ii) closed-loop control system for an integrated micro-syringe system; (iii) software development for full automation of the AM workstation; iv) AM system adaptation to the manufacture of porous titanium; and v) design guidelines for a desktop version of the proposed AM system. The invented AM system would offer a new manufacturing opportunity to many sectors such as, but not limited to, medical, manufacturing, automotive, and aerospace. It could potentially reduce the development costs for many medical and non-medical devices, where the realization of varying density/porosity also increases the quality and physical properties for specific applications.