Curable Composition Warpage Reduction via Polyalkylene Glycol
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional curable compositions used in additive manufacturing, such as those based on acrylic resins, face issues with warpage during curing, leading to poor forming accuracy and reduced forming rates, especially when producing objects with high hardness, which requires additional materials like epoxy resins and prolonged heat exposure.
Innovation Solution
A curable composition comprising a monofunctional acrylic monomer, a polyfunctional acrylic monomer, a polyfunctional acrylic-based oligomer, and a compound with a polyalkylene glycol structure, where the polyalkylene glycol compound has a molecular weight of 1,500 to 5,500 and is present in a specific mass ratio, helps prevent warpage and enhances forming accuracy and rate by improving light transmission and hardness depth.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If conventional acrylic resin curable composition is used, then forming rate is improved, but warpage occurs during curing and forming accuracy deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the chemical composition parameters of the curable resin by incorporating specific compounds (polyfunctional acrylic-based oligomers with polyalkylene glycol structures and monofunctional acrylic monomers) to control polymerization shrinkage and reduce warpage, thereby maintaining high forming accuracy while preserving fast forming rates
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a composite curable resin system combining multiple components (polyfunctional acrylic-based oligomer, monofunctional acrylic monomer, and photopolymerization initiator) where each component contributes specific properties that collectively reduce warpage while maintaining curing speed and forming rate
2Strength
If epoxy resin is added to produce high hardness objects, then hardness is improved, but production time increases due to prolonged heat exposure
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the material composition to achieve high hardness through the polyfunctional acrylic-based oligomer's molecular structure and crosslinking density rather than through epoxy resin, enabling room temperature curing and eliminating the time-consuming heat treatment step
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the thermal curing mechanism (heat exposure) with a photopolymerization mechanism using UV light, eliminating the need for prolonged heat treatment while achieving high hardness through controlled crosslinking of the acrylic-based oligomer system
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The composition effectively reduces warpage and improves forming accuracy and rate, enabling the production of larger-sized cured products with excellent flexural strength, thus overcoming the limitations of conventional methods.
Implementation Method 1
a curable composition, a cured product, method of producing cured product, and apparatus for producing cured product... forming a layered formed object... by curing and stacking the curable resin solution layer by layer with an ultraviolet laser
Data Source
AI summary
Provided is a curable composition containing a monofunctional acrylic monomer, a polyfunctional acrylic monomer, a polyfunctional acrylic-based oligomer, and a compound having a polyalkylene glycol structure. The compound having a polyalkylene glycol structure has a molecular weight of 1,500 or more, and a content of the compound having a polyalkylene glycol structure is 5 parts by mass or more to 15 parts by mass or less relative to 100 parts by mass of the total of the monofunctional acrylic monomer, the polyfunctional acrylic monomer, and the polyfunctional acrylic-based oligomer.