3-D printing is a revolutionary manufacturing technique which makes it possible to fabricate objects of any shape and size that are hard to reproduce by traditional methods. We develop a… Click to show full abstract
3-D printing is a revolutionary manufacturing technique which makes it possible to fabricate objects of any shape and size that are hard to reproduce by traditional methods. We develop a coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulation approach to model the continuous liquid interface production (CLIP) 3-D printing technique. This technique utilizes a continuous polymerization and cross-linking of the liquid monomeric precursor by the UV light within a thin layer while pulling the cross-linked polymeric object out of a pool of monomers. Simulations show that the quality of the shape of the 3-D printed objects is determined by a fine interplay between elastic, capillary, and friction forces. Using simulation results, we identify the source of the object shape deformations and develop a set of rules for calibration of the parameters to meet the accuracy requirements. Comparison between different continuous 3-D printing setups shows that proposed modifications of the printing process could improve quality and ac...
               
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