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Freeform Fabrication of Components with Designed Cellular Structure
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 February 2011
Abstract
One of the more intriguing freeform fabrication application areas is the fabrication of bodies with designed microstmctures. While design of reinforced composite microstructures has received much attention, construction of designed porous or cellular structures may have greater technical feasibility and offers attractive practical benefits. Freeform fabrication advantages compared to existing foam and honeycomb fabrication techniques are discussed with emphasis on control over pore size, shape, orientation and distribution including hierarchical and functionally graded pore structures, all in combination with the ability to fabricate near net shape objects of complex geometry. Potential applications include the use of designed surface and bulk porosity to enhance both short and long term fixation of structural metal implants to bone, and lightweighting of aerospace components to approach optimized mass efficiency based on predicted stress distributions within a part. Progress using a stereo/photolithographic fabrication technique to construct designed pore structures in stainless steel bodies is presented. Various techniques used to fabricate fine porosity (size less than a layer thickness), coarse porosity (size greater than a layer thickness), and truss, open cell and honeycomb structures with characteristically high cell volume fraction (i.e., greater than 50 percent) are described.
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- Copyright © Materials Research Society 1999
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