Purdue researchers use custom inkjet printers to print 3D energy materials

Researchers at Purdue University have recently developed a method of printing high-energy materials using ink-jet printing technology that allows materials to be deposited with unprecedented precision and safety. Energy materials include explosives and pyrotechnics, but with you Imagine the difference is that they are not only used to make fireworks and other items.

Several functional micromechanical systems use high-energy materials to perform their basic tasks: for example, the airbag system in a vehicle uses a small amount of solid propellant (a high-energy material) to quickly release the airbag, while the smaller the device, The more important the demand is.
Researchers at Purdue University have developed a new type of high-energy material system that uses ink-jet 3D printing technology that is accurate and safe and combines two university-wide areas of expertise: additive manufacturing and Energy Materials.

'Energy materials are a good area for understanding, as is additive manufacturing,' says Allison Murray, PhD, a custom inkjet 3D printer for the project. "The uniqueness of this project lies in the intersection of these two areas Point, and can safely deposit energetic material with this precision.

The newly developed 3D printer combines fuel and oxidizer by overlapping them to form a nanoscale metastable intermolecular complex with small particle size.

Murray said: 'Configuring droplet volume and morphology is a' challenge, 'and actually developing a machine that can deposit these droplets.However, piezo inkjet 3D printers work exactly as they designed, Move its print station while keeping the nozzle stationary or form the desired shape in the 'stage' below.

Murray said: 'The print station can move with a precision of 0.1 microns, which is essentially one-thousandth the width of a human hair.'

The printed nanothermite as a traditional way to apply fast and powerful reactions to 2500 Kelvin burns while generating a large amount of thrust and heat ... and emits huge shock waves. Using high-speed cameras and scanning transmission electron microscopy equipment, researchers were able to observe How the printed nanoparticle reacts with a different number of layers.

Purdue scientists say their work demonstrates the viability of reactive inkjet printing as a method of depositing high-energy materials from two essentially inert suspensions, saying it is "safer material handling and development Various energetic materials previously considered incompatible with inkjet printing open the door.

It is reported that the results of this study has recently been published in the Journal of Applied Physics, "Two-component additive manufacturing of nanothermite structures via reactive inkjet printing." Authors include Murray, Tugba Isik, Volkan Ortalan, I. Emre Gunduz, Steven F. Son, George T.-C. Chiu and Jeffrey F. Rhoads.

Rhoads said: "Purdue University features professors from different backgrounds who can work together on such projects, and we can combine all our experiences to work together on technologies that were previously impossible."