Strengthening 3-D printed parts for real-world use

Brandon Sweeney and his advisor Dr. Micah Green

discovered a way to make 3-D printed parts stronger and immediately useful in real-world applications. Sweeney and Green applied the traditional welding concepts to bond the submillimeter layers in a 3-D printed part together, while in a microwave.

Sweeney began working with 3-D printed materials while employed at the Army Research Laboratory at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland.

"I was able to see the amazing potential of the technology, such as the way it sped up our manufacturing times and enabled our CAD designs to come to life in a matter of hours," Sweeney said. "Unfortunately, we always knew those parts were not really strong enough to survive in a real-world application."

3-D printed objects are comprised of many thin layers of materials, plastics in this case, deposited on top of each other to form a desired shape. These layers are prone to fracturing, causing issues with the durability and reliability of the part when used in a real-world application, for example a custom printed medical device.

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-07-d-real-world.html#jCp