He Liu, Wang Peiren, Yang Junhui, Fan Kaoyi, Zhang Hanqiang, Zhang Luyan, Jiang Mingxing, Chen Xiaoyi, Chen Zhen, Chen Min, Liu Haiyun, Li Ji
Key Laboratory of MEMS of the Ministry of Education, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China.
School of Advanced Technology, Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Suzhou 215123, China.
Micromachines (Basel). 2023 Dec 19;15(1):0. doi: 10.3390/mi15010002.
Lattice structures are a group of cellular materials composed of regular repeating unit cells. Due to their extraordinary mechanical properties, such as specific mechanical strength, ultra-low density, negative Poisson's ratio, etc., lattice structures have been widely applied in the fields of aviation and aerospace, medical devices, architecture, and automobiles. Hybrid additive manufacturing (HAM), an integrated manufacturing technology of 3D printing processes and other complementary processes, is becoming a competent candidate for conveniently delivering lattice structures with multifunctionalities, not just mechanical aspects. This work proposes a HAM technology that combines vat photopolymerization (VPP) and electroless plating process to fabricate smart metal-coated lattice structures. VPP 3D printing process is applied to create a highly precise polymer lattice structure, and thereafter electroless plating is conducted to deposit a thin layer of metal, which could be used as a resistive sensor for monitoring the mechanical loading on the structure. Ni-P layer and copper layer were successfully obtained with the resistivity of 8.2×10-7Ω⋅m and 2.0 ×10-8 Ω⋅m, respectively. Smart lattice structures with force-loading self-sensing functionality are fabricated to prove the feasibility of this HAM technology for fabricating multifunctional polymer-metal lattice composites.
晶格结构是由规则重复的单元细胞组成的一类多孔材料。由于其具有特殊的力学性能，如比机械强度、超低密度、负泊松比等，晶格结构已广泛应用于航空航天、医疗器械、建筑和汽车等领域。混合增材制造（HAM）是一种将3D打印工艺与其他互补工艺相结合的集成制造技术，正成为一种能够方便地制造具有多功能（不仅是机械功能）晶格结构的有力候选技术。这项工作提出了一种将光固化成型（VPP）和化学镀工艺相结合的HAM技术，以制造智能金属涂层晶格结构。采用VPP 3D打印工艺创建高精度聚合物晶格结构，然后进行化学镀以沉积一层薄金属，该金属可用作电阻传感器来监测结构上的机械载荷。成功获得了Ni-P层和铜层，其电阻率分别为8.2×10-7Ω⋅m和2.0×10-8Ω⋅m。制造了具有力加载自感应功能的智能晶格结构，以证明这种HAM技术制造多功能聚合物-金属晶格复合材料的可行性。
