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Abstract: 3D printing offers significant potential in creating highly customized interactive and functional objects. However, at present ability to manufacture functional objects is limited by available materials (e.g., various polymers) and their process properties. For instance, many functional objects need stronger materials which may be satisfied with metal printers. However, to create wholly interactive devices, we need both conductors and insulators to create wiring, and electronic components to complete circuits. Unfortunately, the single material nature of metal printing, and its inherent high temperatures, preclude this. Thus, in 3D printed devices, we have had a choice of strong materials, or embedded interactivity, but not both. In this paper, we introduce a set of techniques we call FiberWire, which leverages a new commercially available capability to 3D print carbon fiber composite objects. These objects are light weight and mechanically strong, and our techniques demonstrate a means to embed circuitry for interactive devices within them. With FiberWire, we describe a fabrication pipeline takes advantage of laser etching and fiber printing between layers of carbon-fiber composite to form low resistance conductors, thereby enabling the fabrication of electronics directly embedded into mechanically strong objects. Utilizing the fabrication pipeline, we show a range of sensor designs, their performance characterization on these new materials and finally three fully printed example object that are both interactive and mechanically strong -- a bicycle handle bar with interactive controls, a swing and impact sensing golf club and an interactive game controller (Figure 1).
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A sweet solution to complex microprinting
Design and manufacturing processes that modify surfaces have seen rapid development in recent years ( 1 – 4 ). Besides aesthetics, these modifications can add new functionalities to an object. For example, the regular arrangement of modifications on a surface (periodic structuring) is used to create chemical sensors, cloaking devices, and optical fibers, among other tools ( 5 ). Despite the versatility of surface modification techniques, such as direct transfer, three-dimensional (3D) printing, and “wrapping,” there are limitations associated with properties of the functional components and target objects, as well as from the desired deposition patterns. On page 894 of this issue, Zabow ( 6 ) presents a relatively simple approach for transferring arrays of diverse functional components onto objects with complex 3D geometries. The method uses a familiar material—table sugar—in a “reflow” process that leverages sugar’s melting and dissolving properties to create a flowable “stamp.”
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- Award ID(s):
- 1933525
- PAR ID:
- 10406390
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Science
- Volume:
- 378
- Issue:
- 6622
- ISSN:
- 0036-8075
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 826 to 827
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1126/science.ade6722
