Gradient matters via filament diameter-adjustable 3D printing.

Gradient matters with hierarchical structures endow the natural world with excellent integrity and diversity. Currently, direct ink writing 3D printing is attracting tremendous interest, and has been used to explore the fabrication of 1D and 2D hierarchical structures by adjusting the diameter, spacing, and angle between filaments. However, it is difficult to generate complex 3D gradient matters owing to the inherent limitations of existing methods in terms of available gradient dimension, gradient resolution, and shape fidelity. Here, we report a filament diameter-adjustable 3D printing strategy that enables conventional extrusion 3D printers to produce 1D, 2D, and 3D gradient matters with tunable heterogeneous structures by continuously varying the volume of deposited ink on the printing trajectory. In detail, we develop diameter-programmable filaments by customizing the printing velocity and height. To achieve high shape fidelity, we specially add supporting layers at needed locations. Finally, we showcase multi-disciplinary applications of our strategy in creating horizontal, radial, and axial gradient structures, letter-embedded structures, metastructures, tissue-mimicking scaffolds, flexible electronics, and time-driven devices. By showing the potential of this strategy, we anticipate that it could be easily extended to a variety of filament-based additive manufacturing technologies and facilitate the development of functionally graded structures.

A Substructure Condensed Approach for Kinetostatic Modeling of Compliant Mechanisms with Complex Topology.

Compliant mechanisms with complex topology have previously been employed in various precision devices due to the superiorities of high precision and compact size. In this paper, a substructure condensed approach for kinetostatic analysis of complex compliant mechanisms is proposed to provide concise solutions. In detail, the explicit relationships between the theoretical stiffness matrix, element stiffness matrix, and element transfer matrix for the common flexible beam element are first derived based on the energy conservation law. The transfer matrices for three types of serial-parallel substructures are then developed by combining the equilibrium equations of nodal forces with the transfer matrix approach, so that each branch chain can be condensed into an equivalent beam element. Based on the derived three types of transfer matrices, a kinetostatic model describing only the force-displacement relationship of the input/output nodes is established. Finally, two typical precision positioning platforms with complex topology are employed to demonstrate the conciseness and efficiency of this modeling approach. The superiority of this modeling approach is that the input/output stiffness, coupling stiffness, and input/output displacement relations of compliant mechanisms with multiple actuation forces and complex substructures can be simultaneously obtained in concise and explicit matrix forms, which is distinct from the traditional compliance matrix approach.

Fractal Design Boosts Extrusion-Based 3D Printing of Bone-Mimicking Radial-Gradient Scaffolds.

Although extrusion-based three-dimensional (EB-3D) printing technique has been widely used in the complex fabrication of bone tissue-engineered scaffolds, a natural bone-like radial-gradient scaffold by this processing method is of huge challenge and still unmet. Inspired by a typical fractal structure of Koch snowflake, for the first time, a fractal-like porous scaffold with a controllable hierarchical gradient in the radial direction is presented via fractal design and then implemented by EB-3D printing. This radial-gradient structure successfully mimics the radially gradual decrease in porosity of natural bone from cancellous bone to cortical bone. First, we create a design-to-fabrication workflow with embedding the graded data on basis of fractal design into digital processing to instruct the extrusion process of fractal-like scaffolds. Further, by a combination of suitable extruded inks, a series of bone-mimicking scaffolds with a 3-iteration fractal-like structure are fabricated to demonstrate their superiority, including radial porosity, mechanical property, and permeability. This study showcases a robust strategy to overcome the limitations of conventional EB-3D printers for the design and fabrication of functionally graded scaffolds, showing great potential in bone tissue engineering.

A Non-Geodesic Trajectory Design Method and Its Post-Processing for Robotic Filament Winding of Composite Tee Pipes.

With the advantages of high specific strength and well corrosion resistance, polymer-matrix composite tee pipes are widely used in aerospace and civilian fields. The robotic filament winding technology is suitable for forming complex shape parts. This paper aims to provide a novel non-geodesic trajectory design method to get a continuous trajectory for tee pipe winding. Furthermore, post-processing methods are proposed for realizing the full coverage of tee pipes by robotic filament winding. The CAD/CAM software is then designed to simulate the winding process and realize the cover of the whole tee pipe. Finally, experiments of winding a tee pipe with a desktop winding machine and a six-axis winding robot are carried out. The results show that the tee pipe is fully covered, verifying the accuracy of the design method and post-processing methods.

Temperature Field in the Heat Transfer Process of PEEK Thermoplastic Composite Fiber Placement.

Under the effect of different process parameters, the temperature field inside the thermoplastic fiber is very complex and directly affects the fusion quality between the resins. Considering the heat transfer behavior of thermoplastic fiber polyether ether ketone (PEEK) as the research object, a mathematical model of heat transfer in the thermoplastic composite fiber placement with the relevant boundary conditions was established. Ansys Parametric Design Language (APDL) was used to generate the finite element model and simulate the transient process, not only to explore the influence of various process parameters on the temperature field, but also to build an online temperature field measurement system. The influence rules of placement process parameters and mold initial temperature with respect to the temperature field in the first layer were obtained. Combining the relationship between heating temperature and placement speed, when the first layer was laid, the placement process temperature could be quickly reached by low speed and high temperature. The temperature data were collected by the online detection system. Compared with the temperature data from the simulation, the error was below 8%, which verified the correctness of the heat transfer model. The academic research results will lay a theoretical foundation for the thermoplastic fiber placement.

Mechanical Simulation of Thermoplastic Composite Fiber Variable-Angle Laminates.

By changing the placement angle of the placement path, the fiber direction can be controlled and adjusted to change the load distribution in the laminate, and the stress and natural frequency performances of the laminate can then be altered to finally obtain laminates with desired mechanical properties. In this paper, the finite element analysis model of variable-stiffness laminates is established based on the fiber placement reference path defined by the Bezier curve method. Based on the analysis of the mechanical properties of the thermoplastic fiber variable-angle laminates obtained by variable-angle trajectory planning, the changes in the stress and deformation of the thermoplastic fiber variable-angle laminate with the connection point parameter ß under a compressive load are analyzed. The influence of the parameter ß on the static performances of the variable-angle laminates is studied. The simulation results indicate that the maximum stress of the laminate increases first and then decreases as the parameter ß increases and reaches the maximum value when the parameter ß is 0.5. The minimum stress also shows the same trend as that of the maximum stress and reaches the minimum value when the connection point parameter ß is 0.3. The deformation of the variable-angle laminates varies with the change of the connection point parameter ß. The maximum deformation increases at first and then decreases for the laminate with the parameter ß increasing and reaches the maximum value when the parameter ß is 0.8. The minimum deformation of the laminate decreases initially and then increases as the connection point parameter ß increases and reaches the minimum value when the parameter ß is 0.6. The deformation gradually decreases from the upper and lower ends to the middle, and the deformation area has a symmetrical form. The initial regular rectangular area gradually changes to an elliptical distribution and the area of maximum deformation gradually decreases.

Defect Characteristics and Online Detection Techniques During Manufacturing of FRPs Using Automated Fiber Placement: A Review.

Automated fiber placement (AFP) is an advanced manufacturing method for composites, which is especially suitable for large-scale composite components. However, some manufacturing defects inevitably appear in the AFP process, which can affect the mechanical properties of composites. This work aims to investigate the recent works on manufacturing defects and their online detection techniques during the AFP process. The main content focuses on the position defect in conventional and variable stiffness laminates, the relationship between the defects and the mechanical properties, defect control methods, the modeling method for a void defect, and online detection techniques. Following that, the contributions and limitations of the current studies are discussed. Finally, the prospects of future research concerning theoretical and practical engineering applications are pointed out.

Biomaterials for bone tissue engineering scaffolds: a review.

Bone tissue engineering has been continuously developing since the concept of "tissue engineering" has been proposed. Biomaterials that are used as the basic material for the fabrication of scaffolds play a vital role in bone tissue engineering. This paper first introduces a strategy for literature search. Then, it describes the structure, mechanical properties and materials of natural bone and the strategies of bone tissue engineering. Particularly, it focuses on the current knowledge about biomaterials used in the fabrication of bone tissue engineering scaffolds, which includes the history, types, properties and applications of biomaterials. The effects of additives such as signaling molecules, stem cells, and functional materials on the performance of the scaffolds are also discussed.

Multi-Scale Low-Entropy Method for Optimizing the Processing Parameters during Automated Fiber Placement.

Automated fiber placement (AFP) process includes a variety of energy forms and multi-scale effects. This contribution proposes a novel multi-scale low-entropy method aiming at optimizing processing parameters in an AFP process, where multi-scale effect, energy consumption, energy utilization efficiency and mechanical properties of micro-system could be taken into account synthetically. Taking a carbon fiber/epoxy prepreg as an example, mechanical properties of macro-meso-scale are obtained by Finite Element Method (FEM). A multi-scale energy transfer model is then established to input the macroscopic results into the microscopic system as its boundary condition, which can communicate with different scales. Furthermore, microscopic characteristics, mainly micro-scale adsorption energy, diffusion coefficient entropy-enthalpy values, are calculated under different processing parameters based on molecular dynamics method. Low-entropy region is then obtained in terms of the interrelation among entropy-enthalpy values, microscopic mechanical properties (interface adsorbability and matrix fluidity) and processing parameters to guarantee better fluidity, stronger adsorption, lower energy consumption and higher energy quality collaboratively. Finally, nine groups of experiments are carried out to verify the validity of the simulation results. The results show that the low-entropy optimization method can reduce void content effectively, and further improve the mechanical properties of laminates.