A Microfluidic Contact Lens to Address Contact Lens-Induced Dry Eye

The contact lens (CL) industry has made great strides in improving CL-wearing experiences. However, a large amount of CL wearers continue to experience ocular dryness, known as contact lens-induced dry eye (CLIDE), stemming from the reduction in tear volume, tear film instability, increased tear osmolarity followed by inflammation and resulting in ocular discomfort and visual disturbances. In this article, to address tear film thinning between the CL and the ocular surface, the concept of using a CL with microchannels to deliver the tears from the pre-lens tear film (PrLTF) to the post-lens ocular surface using in vitro eye-blink motion is investigated. This study reports an eye-blink mimicking system with microfluidic poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (poly(HEMA)) hydrogel with integrated microchannels to demonstrate eye-blink assisted flow through microchannels. This in vitro experimental study provides a proof-of-concept result that tear transport from PrLTF to post-lens tear film can be enhanced by an artificial eyelid motion in a pressure range of 0.1–5 kPa (similar to human eyelid pressure) through poly(HEMA) microchannels. Simulation is conducted to support the hypothesis. This work demonstrates the feasibility of developing microfluidic CLs with the potential to help prevent or minimize CLIDE and discomfort by the enhanced transport of pre-lens tears to the post-lens ocular surface.     

Additive Manufacturing of Precision Biomaterials

Biomaterials play a critical role in modern medicine as surgical guides, implants for tissue repair, and as drug delivery systems. The emerging paradigm of precision medicine exploits individual patient information to tailor clinical therapy. While the main focus of precision medicine to date is the design of improved pharmaceutical treatments based on “-omics” data, the concept extends to all forms of customized medical care. This includes the design of precision biomaterials that are tailored to meet specific patient needs. Additive manufacturing (AM) enables free-form manufacturing and mass customization, and is a critical enabling technology for the clinical implementation of precision biomaterials. Materials scientists and engineers can contribute to the realization of precision biomaterials by developing new AM technologies, synthesizing advanced (bio)materials for AM, and improving medical-image-based digital design. As the field matures, AM is poised to provide patient-specific tissue and organ substitutes, reproducible microtissues for drug screening and disease modeling, personalized drug delivery systems, as well as customized medical devices.     

典型无机非金属材料增材制造研究与应用现状

增材制造是基于离散堆积思想实现原型或产品零件的快速制造。作为三大材料之一的无机非金属材料在医疗、航天航空、汽车、建筑、工艺品等众多领域都具有无可比拟的巨大应用前景,为了能够快速制造形状任意复杂的器件,无机非金属材料的增材制造成为当下研究的热点。从增材制造技术类型、材料等方面详细阐述国内外无机非金属材料增材制造研究水平与发展状况,对比几种常用的无机非金属材料,重点是针对几种常见的陶瓷材料以及用于砂型铸造材料等成形特点及面临问题进行阐述,阐明了目前无机非金属材料增材制造存在的迫切需要解决的关键性问题,并深入分析了材料处理工艺、3DP/SLS/SLM三维成形工艺、后处理工艺对成形件的质量和性能的影响作用,最后对宝玉石材料的增材制造提出一些展望。     

Additive Manufacturing of Metal Structures at the Micrometer Scale

Currently, the focus of additive manufacturing (AM) is shifting from simple prototyping to actual production. One driving factor of this process is the ability of AM to build geometries that are not accessible by subtractive fabrication techniques. While these techniques often call for a geometry that is easiest to manufacture, AM enables the geometry required for best performance to be built by freeing the design process from restrictions imposed by traditional machining. At the micrometer scale, the design limitations of standard fabrication techniques are even more severe. Microscale AM thus holds great potential, as confirmed by the rapid success of commercial micro‐stereolithography tools as an enabling technology for a broad range of scientific applications. For metals, however, there is still no established AM solution at small scales. To tackle the limited resolution of standard metal AM methods (a few tens of micrometers at best), various new techniques aimed at the micrometer scale and below are presently under development. Here, we review these recent efforts. Specifically, we feature the techniques of direct ink writing, electrohydrodynamic printing, laser‐assisted electrophoretic deposition, laser‐induced forward transfer, local electroplating methods, laser‐induced photoreduction and focused electron or ion beam induced deposition. Although these methods have proven to facilitate the AM of metals with feature sizes in the range of 0.1–10 µm, they are still in a prototype stage and their potential is not fully explored yet. For instance, comprehensive studies of material availability and material properties are often lacking, yet compulsory for actual applications. We address these items while critically discussing and comparing the potential of current microscale metal AM techniques.     

非氧化物陶瓷光固化增材制造研究进展及展望

目前光固化3D打印技术因打印成型精度高而被广泛应用于陶瓷增材制造, 其中非氧化物陶瓷如碳化硅、氮化硅等因打印材料粉体折射率和吸光度比较高, 光固化陶瓷浆料存在分散稳定性差、入射光难穿透并产生光固化反应的固化层厚度低等问题, 导致其固含量很难提高甚至于无法打印成型。高固含量的非氧化物陶瓷打印成型成为光固化3D打印的主要难点, 吸引了广大学者对其光固化机理、粉体调控等机制进行研究。本文系统地总结了几种非氧化物陶瓷光固化浆料的制备、光固化成型、有机物去除及烧结致密化的研究工作, 并就如何对光敏树脂组成进行调节、对陶瓷粉体进行改性的几种方法进行分析与讨论, 针对性地提出创新方案来改善非氧化物陶瓷的浆料性能、光固化打印优化和致密化缺陷修复及性能提升, 最终推动大尺寸、复杂结构的非氧化物陶瓷部件光固化增材制造高精度制备技术的进步。     

增材制造硫系玻璃光学元件的前景分析与探讨

硫系玻璃作为红外光学系统的基础材料,在夜视枪瞄、车载夜视、星际生命探测等高端红外光学领域应用前景十分广阔。硫系玻璃的优点是折射率温度系数低,可避免光学系统的热失焦,实现系统色差自校正,并保证成像质量;缺点是色散系数大,实际应用时需要将其加工成面形复杂的元件。现有元件加工技术难以满足高精度、多品种、小批量硫系玻璃光学元件的加工需要。增材制造是一种迅速发展的新型制造技术,适于复杂结构器件的个性化定制。将增材制造技术用于硫系玻璃光学元件制备,对于解决硫系玻璃发展中遇到的瓶颈问题,促进硫系玻璃的快速发展具有重要意义。重点探讨了增材制造技术用于制造硫系玻璃光学元件的可行性并分析未来发展前景。     

增材制造用金属粉末材料的关键影响因素分析

通过分析增材制造过程中各因素的影响作用,提出材料是制约我国增材制造技术的主要问题,对增材制造用粉末材料的特点进行了解析,以期为解决我国增材制造用粉末的研发提供参考。     

Additive Manufacturing of Hard Magnetic Passive Shims to Increase Field Homogeneity of a Halbach Magnet

Obtaining a highly homogeneous magnetic field is desired for field-controlled applications. For example, the resolution of magnetic analysis methods can be improved by generating a stronger and more homogeneous field over the region of interest (ROI). A set of 3D-printed passive shims is fabricated using additive manufacturing to improve the magnetic field homogeneity of a Halbach magnet assembly. The feedstock is a custom acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS)-hard magnet composite filament filled with 60% wt. isotropic NdFeB. Additionally, a method for investigating the remanence is developed and validated. The result reveals a good agreement between the new method and existing measurement techniques for the remanence of permanent magnets. It is also shown that the additive manufacturing procedure has negligible effects on the magnetic properties. Performing a parametric study over a rectangular ROI, an optimized shim configuration is achieved. In the optimized and 3D-printed configuration, the average norm of the magnetic flux density, B_norm, is increased by 13% and, more importantly, a 43% increase in the magnetic uniformity is obtained. These results highlight the great potential of freeform manufacturing, namely, additive manufacturing, to tailor the properties of magnet structures.     

增材制造铜/钢双金属材料研究进展

铜/钢双金属材料具有力学强度高、物理化学性能优良等优势,在交通运输、电力能源和建筑工业等领域应用前景广阔。然而,传统熔铸工艺在制造铜/钢双金属材料时,容易在铜/钢界面处产生偏析现象,在一定程度上限制了铜/钢双金属材料的发展。与传统工艺相比,增材制造技术不仅能实现复杂加工零件的快速制造,而且在成形过程中较短的保温时间能缓和或消除异种金属材料界面产生的冶金缺陷,进而增强铜/钢双金属材料的力学性能。由于双金属材料是近年来的研究热点,有关增材制造铜/钢双金属材料的综述性文章较少,故综述了近年来激光、电子束及电弧增材制造技术制造铜/钢双金属材料的研究发展现状,分析了各技术的优缺点,并从制备方法、工艺参数及界面合金元素等角度,分析了影响材料界面组织性能变化的关键因素。发现在增材制造铜/钢双金属材料方面,目前激光增材制造技术主要应用于精度要求较高的小尺寸零部件,电子束增材制造技术适用于某些具有特殊性能的合金,如钛合金,而电弧增材制造技术适用于精度要求较低的大型复杂零部件。在铜/钢双金属材料增材制造过程中,界面处易形成显微组织分布不均匀、界面晶粒尺寸差异较大等现象,导致界面处产生应力集中,从而造成材料...     

Microfluidics for Medical Additive Manufacturing

Additive manufacturing plays a vital role in the food, mechanical, pharmaceutical, and medical fields. Within these fields, medical additive manufacturing has led to especially obvious improvements in medical instruments, prostheses, implants, and so forth, based on the advantages of cost-effectiveness, customizability, and quick manufacturing. With the features of precise structural control, high throughput, and good component manipulation, microfluidic techniques present distinctive benefits in medical additive manufacturing and have been applied in the areas of drug discovery, tissue engineering, and organs on chips. Thus, a comprehensive review of microfluidic techniques for medical additive manufacturing is useful for scientists with various backgrounds. Herein, we review recent progress in the development of microfluidic techniques for medical additive manufacturing. We evaluate the distinctive benefits associated with microfluidic technologies for medical additive manufacturing with respect to the fabrication of droplet/fiber templates with different structures. Extensive applications of microfluidic techniques for medical additive manufacturing are emphasized, such as cell guidance, three-dimensional (3D) cell culture, tissue assembly, and cell-based therapy. Finally, we present challenges in and future perspectives on the development of microfluidics for medical additive manufacturing.     

电弧增材制造技术及其应用的研究进展

电弧增材制造是近年来发展最为迅速的增材制造技术之一,其以电弧为热源,通过熔化金属丝材,在规划的路径上层层堆积成形三维实体金属构件,具有制造成本低、制造自由度与成形效率高等优点,尤其适用于大型尺寸及中低结构复杂度金属构件的形性一体化成形.近年来,电弧增材制造技术在国内外得到了广泛研究与长足发展,在电弧增材制造装备、过程控...     

食品接触材料接触面积三维测量技术与人工测量方法对比

目的 分析三维测量技术在不规则食品接触材料表面积和容积的计算中,相较于常用人工测量方法的应用优势.方法 以7种常见的不规则食品接触材料为例,分别用三维测量技术和人工测量技术测量样品表面积,每个样品平行测定6次,对比2种方法测量结果的准确度和精密度.结果 三维测量技术结果准确度高,精密度为0.0134％～1.63％;人工测量结果的精密度为0.748％～3.04％,其稳定性明显低于三维测量技术.结论 人工测量技术存在测量方法不确定、测量偏差大和测量难度大等缺点;三维测量技术操作简单、结果稳定性高、适用性广,具有广泛的应用前景.     

Simulation of Binder Infiltration in Additive Manufacturing of Sand Molds

This article proposes a computational fluid dynamics approach to simulate binder infiltration in 3D printing of sand molds using OpenFOAM facilitating the identification of suitable levers for application-specific material and process developments. A method for randomly generating powder bulks of designated powder size distributions (PSD) and procedures for automated analysis of the infiltration profile and volume are introduced. Simulation is utilized to investigate binder infiltration using different droplet spacings, representing different printheads’ resolutions. The apparent particle size at the exact location of the droplets’ impact, the droplets’ landing position in relation to the respective surface topography, and thus the statistical appearance of particle formations appear to be influencing the infiltration profile. High-speed camera observations show the plausibility of the predicted infiltration kinetics. An exemplary use case compares the predicted infiltration profiles to the compressive strength of specimens printed from silica sand with low binder contents. Simulation predicts an average infiltration of 250 μm that presumably achieves reliable bonding for layer thicknesses up to 365 μm. A decrease in strength with increasing layer thickness at constant binder contents can be found in the experiment – at layer thicknesses above 350 μm, only minor strengths are achieved.     

Development of Bioimplants with 2D, 3D,and 4D Additive Manufacturing Materials

Over the past 30 years, additive manufacturing (AM) has developed rapidly and has demonstrated great potential in biomedical applications. AM is a materials-oriented manufacturing technology, since the solidification mechanism, architecture resolution, post-treatment process, and functional application are based on the materials to be printed. However, 3D printable materials are still quite limited for the fabrication of bioimplants. In this work, 2D/3D AM materials for bioimplants are reviewed. Furthermore, inspired by Tai Chi, a simple yet novel soft/rigid hybrid 4D AM concept is advanced to develop complex and dynamic biological structures in the human body based on 4D printing hybrid ceramic precursor/ceramic materials that were previously developed by our group. With the development of multi-material printing technology, the development of bioimplants and soft/rigid hybrid biological structures with 2D/3D/4D AM materials can be anticipated.     

Electrochromic Systems and the Prospects for Devices

Many inorganic and organic materials exhibit redox states with distinct electronic (UV‐vis) absorption bands. When the switching of redox states generates new or different visible region bands, the material is electrochromic. Electrochromic materials are currently attracting much interest in academia and industry for both their fascinating spectroelectrochemical properties and their commercial applications. In this review some of the most important examples from the major classes of electrochromic materials are highlighted. Examples of their use in both prototype and commercial electrochromic devices are illustrated including car mirrors, windows and sun‐roofs of cars, windows of buildings, displays (see Figure), printing, and frozen‐food monitoring.     

石墨烯基储能材料的增材制造研究进展

石墨烯是一种具有大比表面积、高电导率和良好的力学性能的二维材料,在高容量和大功率储能器件方面具有广阔的应用前景。然而现有的各种石墨烯电极制造技术无论从技术层面还是在生产率、性能方面都难以满足当前工业应用的需求。石墨烯增材制造(石墨烯3D打印)在复杂三维石墨烯结构的制造方面具有突出的优势和潜力,而且还具有设备简单、成型结构可控性高等优点。关于石墨烯基电极材料的增材制造及应用在近两年内迅速发展。概述了基于增材制造制备石墨烯结构的典型技术——直写成型(DIW)的机理和优点,介绍了基于该技术制备的石墨烯基电极材料在超级电容器和锂离子电池领域的应用,最后对石墨烯基电极材料的增材制造面临的挑战和未来发展趋势进行了展望。