With the evolution of 3D printers "stronger than iron · lighter than water" Potential for the creation of dream material

Make an artificial heart,Making pizza in outer space,Make houses at the explosive speedAnd the evolution of 3D printers does not know where to stay. Due to the advancement of its 3D printing technology and laser irradiation technology, there is the possibility that the dream material "stronger than iron - lighter than water" could be born.

KIT - Mitarbeiter - Jens Bauer
http://www.iam.kit.edu/wbm/73_925.php


Scientists create bone-like material that is lighter than water but as strong as steel
http://theconversation.com/scientists-create-bone-like-material-that-is-lighter-than-water-but-as-strong-as-steel-22729

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)Dr. Jens Bauer has the property of solidifying when irradiated with lightpolymerWe used 3D as a raw material to create a "framework" structure, which succeeded in creating a material that is stronger than iron and lighter than water.

Where structural materials are said to be stronger and lighter, they tend to be heavier when they try to raise the strength in general. The illustration below is a distribution chart showing the relationship between compressive strength and specific gravity of general structural materials. Compression strength is stronger as the structural material located at the top of the illustration, and that on the left side of the illustration is lighter. In particular, the one on the left side of the broken line of "1000" at the center of the illustration shows that it is lighter than water.


Since the Industrial Revolution, human beings have been asking for lighter and stronger materials, but as the white part on the upper left of the illustration shows, materials that are lighter than water and strong like iron have not been produced at present.


Many materials scholars thought that a porous structure with a skeletal structure is indispensable to make a material "stronger than iron and lighter than water", but there was no means to create a fine framework structure Because it was not possible to realize "dream material" had stayed. However, with the development of 3D printing technology that can produce a three-dimensional structure smaller than 1 micrometer and laser technology that can irradiate light only in a fine range, the possibility that this dream material will be born is emerging.

In collaboration with Nanoscribe of Germany, Dr. Bauer outputs polymers with properties to solidify in response to laser light with a 3D printer and irradiates the laser partly so as to have a fine framework structure, whereby polymer We succeeded in assembling the structure into a framework. However, the material produced by Nanoscribe was insufficient in the state as it was, so reinforcing the structure with this skeletal structure with a 50 nm thick alumina coating resulted in lighter weight than water, but 280 MPa We also succeeded in producing high rigidity material like steel which can withstand the stress of.

The state of compression experiment of this framework polymer can be confirmed in the following movie.

Lighter than water but as strong as steel - YouTube


This is an enlarged view of the frame structure. Because the diameter of the hair is about 50 micrometers (μm), the smallness of the framework is clearly understood.


If you compress from the upward direction, you can confirm that the framework is tangled.


Unable to withstand pressure, the uppermost part of the framework collapsed.


As the compression force further increases, you can see that the framework is drawn to draw "S shape".


The second stage part was also crushed.


Structure that can withstand large but tolerated.


I will crush in order in order not to withstand pressure.


Eventually I got peek.


The framework polymer which succeeded in making this time by Dr. Bauer and Nanoscribe is small size of several tens of micrometers and can not be used as a structural material. However, if the technology of 3D printers and lasers advances, it will be possible to create larger structures, possibly realizing dream material. Considering the phenomenal development speed of 3D printer technology, it seems that it is not a dream story that material that is stronger than iron and lighter than water will be realized in the near future.