Rheology and Formulation in Material Extrusion Additive Manufacturing of Dense Pastes
Additive manufacturing of dense pastes, those with greater than 50 vol% particles, via material extrusion direct ink write is a promising method to produce customized structures for high-performance materials, such as energetic materials and pharmaceuticals, as well as to enable the use of waste or other locally available particles. However, the high volume fraction and the large sizes of the particles for these applications lead to significant challenges in developing inks and processing methods to prepare quality parts. In her Prospective published in MRS Communications, coauthored with Alexandra Marnot and Alexandra Dobbs, the authors analyze challenges in managing particle characteristics, stabilizing the suspensions, mixing the particles and binder, and 3D printing the pastes.