Light-Curing Resin Composition with Expandable Particles for 3D Printing
Solution Overview
Problem
Three-dimensional printed objects have high density, leading to a heavy body burden when worn and slow production speed, making it difficult to reduce production costs and enhance manufacturing efficiency.
Innovation Solution
A light-curing resin composition comprising a photoinitiator, acrylic oligomer, and expandable particles with hollow spherical shell structures is used in additive manufacturing, allowing for a closed-cell hollow structure formation through heat treatment, which reduces density and enhances production speed.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Weight of moving object
If conventional three-dimensional printing materials are used, then structural integrity is maintained, but density increases causing heavy body burden
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs expandable particles with hollow spherical shell structures that form a closed-cell hollow structure within the resin composition. These porous structures significantly reduce the density of the three-dimensional printed objects, thereby reducing body burden while maintaining sufficient structural integrity through the distributed cellular architecture.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a composite material system combining resin matrix with expandable particles having hollow spherical shells. This composite structure achieves both low density (through the hollow spheres) and maintained structural strength (through the resin matrix and cellular network), resolving the contradiction between weight reduction and structural integrity.
2Productivity
If conventional three-dimensional printing processes are used, then manufacturing precision is achieved, but production speed remains slow
Solution Approach 1:
The expandable particles are pre-loaded into the resin composition before printing. The particles are designed to expand automatically upon exposure to heat or chemical triggers during or after the printing process, eliminating the need for separate post-processing expansion steps and thereby increasing production speed.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent utilizes phase transition of the expandable particles (from compressed to expanded state) triggered by heat or chemical reactions. This automatic phase change occurs during the curing or post-curing process, integrating the expansion step into the existing manufacturing cycle and reducing overall production time without sacrificing manufacturing precision.
3Ease of manufacture
If high density materials are used in three-dimensional printing, then structural strength is maintained, but production costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The hollow spherical shell structures provide a high surface area to volume ratio that maintains structural strength through distributed load-bearing cells, while the overall low density reduces material costs. The porous structure allows for optimized strength-to-cost performance compared to solid dense materials.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the density parameter of the material by incorporating expandable hollow particles, transforming the material from high density to low density while maintaining structural strength through the cellular architecture. This parameter change enables cost reduction through reduced material usage while preserving necessary mechanical properties.
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 method results in three-dimensional objects with high expansion ratios, low density, and light weight, reducing body burden and production costs while enabling faster product creation with customized structures.
Implementation Method 1
a light-curing resin composition comprising a photoinitiator, an acrylic oligomer, and an acrylic monomer
Implementation Method 2
a heat treatment is performed to a molded object molded by the three-dimensional printing process to form the three-dimensional object
Data Source
AI summary
A light-curing resin composition, a three-dimensional object containing the same, and a manufacturing method of the three-dimensional object are provided. The light-curing resin composition includes a photoinitiator, an acrylic oligomer, an acrylic monomer, and expandable particles with hollow spherical shell structures. The acrylic monomer is a monofunctional monomer, a difunctional monomer, or a combination thereof.