In free webinars, Dr. Natalie Rudolph chats with experts from both academia and industry about their work and research with Additive Manufacturing (AM) technologies to answer some of the pressing questions we received from our viewers of the Basics series. They answer those questions and share important insights and knowledge.
Digital light synthesis, as a variation of the Vat Photopolymerization process, is one of the most promising additive manufacturing technologies for production at scale.
Dr. Natalie Rudolph and Dr. Alec Redmann discuss the advantages and disadvantages of this special 3D-printing method, take a look at unique UV-curable materials and show how additive manufacturing can be used creatively to enhance other, conventional manufacturing technologies such as high-performance composite production.
Dr. Redmann will explain the dual cure approach where UV curing during the 3D printing process is combined with a subsequent thermal curing stage to reach thermally stable properties over the service life of the parts.
Furthermore, they will discuss some of your most frequently asked questions, including:
- What makes the printing process so much faster and why is it so important?
- Can you build large and heavy parts with the top down DLS method?
- Is it possible to add extra material during the printing process?
- How to combine different materials to get perfect functionality and why is thermal analysis so important for the process?
Our special guest today: Dr. Alec Redmann
Dr. Natalie Rudolph welcomes Dr. Alec Redmann from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Dr. Redmann recently graduated with a PhD in Mechanical Engineering. He worked on numerous projects focusing on material characterization and product development in the fields of additive manufacturing and composite manufacturing.
He received his bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of North Dakota and later on worked for GE Renewable Energy as a manufacturing engineer in composite wind turbine blade production.
UV-curable materials make up a big portion of materials used in Additive Manufacturing. Many additive manufacturing processes are based on these materials, for instance, Vat Photopolymerization, Material and Binder Jetting.
One of the analytical methods to study these materials is Fourier-Transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. Dr. Natalie Rudolph talks to one of the experts in the field, Sebastian Ollech from Bruker Optics. Together, they explain the importance of FT-IR spectroscopy, using polymers as an example.
Mr. Ollech will perform a measurement from the Bruker laboratory to determine the curing behavior of the material with the help of FT-IR spectroscopy.
Furthermore, Dr. Natalie Rudolph and Sebastian Ollech will answer your most frequently asked questions such as:
- What is FT-IR Spectroscopy?
- How is FT-IR Spectroscopy used in the chemical 3D-printing process and what can we learn from the measurement?
- Can you adjust the exposure time for your certain measurement?
- How can the software visualize the process?
- Is it possible to measure all organic materials?
Our special guest today: Sebastian Ollech
Sebastian Ollech from Bruker (www.bruker.com) is an expert in FT-IR spectroscopy. As an application specialist and a salesperson, Mr. Ollech has a wide range of expertise in the field of FT-IR analysis. He is responsible for the High-Performance FT-IR spectrometers and his main application focus is on time-resolved FT-IR spectroscopy as well as hyphenated measurement techniques like TGA-FT-IR.
Silicones or silicone elastomers have a desirable property set and are therefore used in many technical and consumer good applications today. However, their processing behavior poses some challenges for broad application in additive manufacturing. Therefore, only few 3D printers are available with Material Jetting being the biggest market.
Dr. Natalie Rudolph and Dr. Vera Seitz discuss challenges and chances of working with silicone elastomers in the Material Jetting or DOD 3D printing process, as well as advantages and design opportunities of multi-material printing.
Dr. Seitz explains the process principle of printing with small droplets and how ACEO® used their silicone expertise to develop the drop-on-demand technology used today.
Furthermore, they will discuss some of your most frequently asked questions, including:
• What are the main properties of silicone elastomers? Is the UV curing behavior comparable to that of thermoset resins?
• Why is rheology so important for the process?
• What are typical applications and how can silicone materials be used to optimize your application?
Our special guest today: Dr. Vera Seitz
Dr. Natalie Rudolph welcomes Dr. Vera Seitz from ACEO®, which is part of Wacker Chemie AG.
ACEO® delivers 3D printing parts as a service. The unique approach was to start from the material expertise and develop a 3D printing technology rather than the other way around that is seen very often.
Dr. Seitz received her diploma in Mechanical Engineering at the Technical University in Munich. She already worked with polymers and silicones as part of her PhD research at the Institute of Medical and Polymer Engineering; also at TUM.
In 2016, Dr. Seitz joint Wacker and the newly found ACEO® group, where she is now in charge of Business Development.
There are many variations of the 7 Additive Manufacturing technologies. One variation are the processes that include fibers, which are in general called Composite Additive Manufacturing. Material extrusion, directed energy deposition and sheet lamination are three processes where fibers have a pronounced impact.
In this interview, Dr. Natalie Rudolph and Mr. Alexander Matschinski first talk about the differences and similarities between conventional composite and additive manufacturing and how to combine both production types.
Furthermore, they will discuss some of your most frequently asked questions, including:
- How do you print with different fibers?
- What are the concepts for fiber integration?
- How do you cut endless fibers?
- Which application will be important in the near future?
- Which industries and research fields have the highest potential?
Our special guest today: Alexander Matschinski
Dr. Natalie Rudolph welcomes Mr. Alexander Matschinski from the Technical University. Mr. Matschinski studied Mechanical Engineering at the Technical University of Munich. At the end of his studies, he worked with the additive manufacturing team at Airbus before he decided to go back to the Chair of Carbon Composites at the Technical University of Munich where he is researching the effect of different fibers on the additive manufacturing process.