Amorphous Glass 3D Printing Powder with Nanopowder Flowability
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current 3D printing materials, primarily photopolymers and thermoplastics, lack versatility in mechanical properties and struggle to achieve high flowability and sinterability, limiting their ability to form high-quality products quickly and efficiently.
Innovation Solution
A forming material composed of irregularly shaped amorphous glass powder mixed with spherical nanopowder, where the nanopowder has a smaller particle diameter and is coated on the surface of the glass powder to enhance flowability and sinterability, allowing for the formation of high-quality articles at high speeds.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If photopolymers or thermoplastics are used for 3D printing, then formability is improved, but flowability and sinterability are insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses a composite material system consisting of irregularly shaped amorphous glass powder as the base material combined with spherical nanopowder additives. This composite approach allows the material to exhibit both good formability from the glass powder and improved flowability/sinterability from the nanopowder components, resolving the contradiction between ease of manufacture and productivity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the physical and chemical parameters of the printing material by using amorphous glass powder with specific particle size distributions and combining it with nanopowder having controlled surface properties. This parameter optimization enables the material to achieve both excellent formability and high flowability/sinterability simultaneously.
2Productivity
If filament-type materials are used for 3D printing, then productivity is improved through high speed printing, but material versatility is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the fundamental parameter of material form from filament to powder, specifically using amorphous glass powder with controlled particle size and shape. This parameter change enables high-speed printing capability while simultaneously opening up versatility to achieve optical properties, mechanical strength, and thermal characteristics that filaments cannot provide.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies local quality by combining irregularly shaped glass powder (for structural integrity and formability) with spherical nanopowder (for flowability and sinterability). This localized functional differentiation within the material composition enables both high productivity and broad material versatility.
3Ease of manufacture
If irregularly shaped glass powder is used, then sinterability is improved, but flowability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces spherical nanopowder as an intermediary substance that mediates between the irregularly shaped glass powder particles. The nanopowder acts as a lubricant and flow promoter, enabling the irregular particles to flow smoothly during printing while maintaining their sinterability, thus resolving the contradiction between sinterability and flowability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a composite powder system where irregularly shaped amorphous glass powder (providing sinterability) is combined with spherical nanopowder (providing flowability). The synergistic interaction between these two components resolves the contradiction, allowing the mixture to exhibit both excellent flow characteristics and high sinterability.
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 material achieves excellent flowability and sinterability, enabling the rapid production of high-quality 3D printed objects with enhanced forming strength and light transmittance, mimicking the integumentary system of a living body with a multilayer structure of porous, fibrous, and scaled layers.
Implementation Method 1
a spherical nanopowder that has an average particle diameter equal to or less than 1/50th of the average particle diameter of the parent glass powder and is mixed in such a way that it can be disposed on a surface of the parent glass powder to enhance the flowability
Implementation Method 2
ensures excellent flowability and sinterability such that it enables the formation of high-quality products at high speed
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention relates to a forming material for three-dimensional (3D) printing, a forming method for 3D printing, and a formed object, wherein, while being based on an amorphous glass powder shaped irregularly, the forming material for 3D printing ensures excellent flowability and sinterability such that it enables the formation of high-quality products at high speed. The forming material for 3D printing consists of a parent glass powder in the form of an unmelted powder irregularly shaped by crushing amorphous glass; and a spherical nanopowder that has an average particle diameter equal to or less than 1/50th of the average particle diameter of the parent glass powder and is mixed in such a way that it can be disposed on a surface of the parent glass powder to enhance the flowability of the irregularly shaped parent glass powder during the formation of an object by 3D printing.