Model-based Curing Depth Control of Aerosol Jet Stereolithography

Abstract

Conventional stereolithography is limited to the processing of one material only and cannot be applied for novel multi-material fabrication techniques. We developed a new approach based on the aerosol jet system as a spray coating device for the generation of a liquid film. The integrated dual spray generator is able to deposit two pure materials and mixed material compositions. Hence, the process was executed iteratively with a liquid material layer generation with a thickness of 50 µm and a following UV laser direct write induced polymerization. We investigated the feasibility of model adaptive curing depth control to minimize the effect of overcuring by 62%. The spray coating-based printing opens a wide range of applications in the field of multi-material additive manufactured products.