A tripropylene glycol diacrylate-based polymeric support ink for material jetting

Support structures and materials are indispensable components in many Additive Manufacturing (AM) systems in order to fabricate complex 3D structures. For inkjet-based AM techniques (known as Material Jetting), there is a paucity of studies on specific inks for fabricating such support structures. T...

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Main Authors: He, Yinfeng, Zhang, Fan, Saleh, Ehab, Vaithilingam, Jayasheelan, Aboulkhair, Nesma T., Begines, Belen, Tuck, Chris J., Hague, Richard J.M., Ashcroft, Ian A., Wildman, Ricky D.
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Published: Elsevier 2017
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Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/44081/
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author He, Yinfeng
Zhang, Fan
Saleh, Ehab
Vaithilingam, Jayasheelan
Aboulkhair, Nesma T.
Begines, Belen
Tuck, Chris J.
Hague, Richard J.M.
Ashcroft, Ian A.
Wildman, Ricky D.
author_facet He, Yinfeng
Zhang, Fan
Saleh, Ehab
Vaithilingam, Jayasheelan
Aboulkhair, Nesma T.
Begines, Belen
Tuck, Chris J.
Hague, Richard J.M.
Ashcroft, Ian A.
Wildman, Ricky D.
author_sort He, Yinfeng
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description Support structures and materials are indispensable components in many Additive Manufacturing (AM) systems in order to fabricate complex 3D structures. For inkjet-based AM techniques (known as Material Jetting), there is a paucity of studies on specific inks for fabricating such support structures. This limits the potential of fabricating complex 3D objects containing overhanging structures. In this paper, we investigate the use of Tripropylene Glycol Diacrylated (TPGDA) to prepare a thermally stable ink with reliable printability to produce removable support structures in an experimental Material Jetting system. The addition of TGME to the TPGDA was found to considerably reduce the modulus of the photocured structure from 575 MPa down to 27 MPa by forming micro-pores in the cured structure. The cured support structure was shown to be easily removed following the fabrication process. During TG-IR tests the T5% temperature of the support structure was above 150 °C whilst the majority of decomposition happened around 400 °C. Specimens containing overhanging structures (gate-like structure, propeller structure) were successfully manufactured to highlight the viability of the ink as a support material.
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institution University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus
institution_category Local University
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publishDate 2017
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spelling nottingham-440812020-05-04T19:04:03Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/44081/ A tripropylene glycol diacrylate-based polymeric support ink for material jetting He, Yinfeng Zhang, Fan Saleh, Ehab Vaithilingam, Jayasheelan Aboulkhair, Nesma T. Begines, Belen Tuck, Chris J. Hague, Richard J.M. Ashcroft, Ian A. Wildman, Ricky D. Support structures and materials are indispensable components in many Additive Manufacturing (AM) systems in order to fabricate complex 3D structures. For inkjet-based AM techniques (known as Material Jetting), there is a paucity of studies on specific inks for fabricating such support structures. This limits the potential of fabricating complex 3D objects containing overhanging structures. In this paper, we investigate the use of Tripropylene Glycol Diacrylated (TPGDA) to prepare a thermally stable ink with reliable printability to produce removable support structures in an experimental Material Jetting system. The addition of TGME to the TPGDA was found to considerably reduce the modulus of the photocured structure from 575 MPa down to 27 MPa by forming micro-pores in the cured structure. The cured support structure was shown to be easily removed following the fabrication process. During TG-IR tests the T5% temperature of the support structure was above 150 °C whilst the majority of decomposition happened around 400 °C. Specimens containing overhanging structures (gate-like structure, propeller structure) were successfully manufactured to highlight the viability of the ink as a support material. Elsevier 2017-08-31 Article PeerReviewed He, Yinfeng, Zhang, Fan, Saleh, Ehab, Vaithilingam, Jayasheelan, Aboulkhair, Nesma T., Begines, Belen, Tuck, Chris J., Hague, Richard J.M., Ashcroft, Ian A. and Wildman, Ricky D. (2017) A tripropylene glycol diacrylate-based polymeric support ink for material jetting. Additive Manufacturing, 16 . pp. 153-161. ISSN 2214-8604 Additive manufacturing; Inkjet printing; Material jetting; Support material; UV curing; TPGDA https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addma.2017.06.001 doi:10.1016/j.addma.2017.06.001 doi:10.1016/j.addma.2017.06.001
spellingShingle Additive manufacturing; Inkjet printing; Material jetting; Support material; UV curing; TPGDA
He, Yinfeng
Zhang, Fan
Saleh, Ehab
Vaithilingam, Jayasheelan
Aboulkhair, Nesma T.
Begines, Belen
Tuck, Chris J.
Hague, Richard J.M.
Ashcroft, Ian A.
Wildman, Ricky D.
A tripropylene glycol diacrylate-based polymeric support ink for material jetting
title A tripropylene glycol diacrylate-based polymeric support ink for material jetting
title_full A tripropylene glycol diacrylate-based polymeric support ink for material jetting
title_fullStr A tripropylene glycol diacrylate-based polymeric support ink for material jetting
title_full_unstemmed A tripropylene glycol diacrylate-based polymeric support ink for material jetting
title_short A tripropylene glycol diacrylate-based polymeric support ink for material jetting
title_sort tripropylene glycol diacrylate-based polymeric support ink for material jetting
topic Additive manufacturing; Inkjet printing; Material jetting; Support material; UV curing; TPGDA
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/44081/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/44081/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/44081/