Towards Micro Rapid Manufacturing (μRM) with functionalized materials: material properties and process accuracy during stereo lithography

Abstract

The suitability of stereo lithography for the rapid manufacturing of micro components is presented. Since Rapid Manufacturing requires a higher-order diversity of materials than available for current Rapid Prototyping machines, our research aims towards the fabrication of new rapid manufacturing materials. Ormocer^®s offer various material properties that can be adjusted by the internal nano-structure of the organic-inorganic parts. In order to attract micro system technology product designers, the process precision has been investigated by means of micro computer tomography (μCT) and the generated parts have further been mechanically characterized. The resulting process accuracy is in the order of a few tens of μm, the mechanical strength of the Ormocer^® is above several hundreds of MPa. The combination of micro stereo lithography and Ormocer^® offers new possibilities for the Rapid Manufacturing of micro components with adjustable properties for end-user applications.