A Tripropylene Glycol Diacrylate-based Polymeric Support Ink for Material Jetting

Aboulkhair, Nesma; He, Yinfeng; Zhang, Fan; Saleh, Ehab; Vaithilingam, Jayasheelan; Aboulkhair, Nesma T.; Begines, Belen; Tuck, Chris J.; Hague, Richard J.M.; Ashcroft, Ian A.; Wildman, Ricky D.

Abstract

© 2017 Support structures and materials are indispensable components in many Additive Manufacturing (AM) systems in order to fabricate complex 3D structures. For inkjet-based AM techniques (known as Material Jetting), there is a paucity of studies on specific inks for fabricating such support structures. This limits the potential of fabricating complex 3D objects containing overhanging structures. In this paper, we investigate the use of Tripropylene Glycol Diacrylated (TPGDA) to prepare a thermally stable ink with reliable printability to produce removable support structures in an experimental Material Jetting system. The addition of TGME to the TPGDA was found to considerably reduce the modulus of the photocured structure from 575MPa down to 27MPa by forming micro-pores in the cured structure. The cured support structure was shown to be easily removed following the fabrication process. During TG-IR tests the T 5% temperature of the support structure was above 150°C whilst the majority of decomposition happened around 400°C. Specimens containing overhanging structures (gate-like structure, propeller structure) were successfully manufactured to highlight the viability of the ink as a support material.

Citation

Aboulkhair, N., He, Y., Zhang, F., Saleh, E., Vaithilingam, J., Aboulkhair, N. T., Begines, B., Tuck, C. J., Hague, R. J., Ashcroft, I. A., & Wildman, R. D. (2017). A Tripropylene Glycol Diacrylate-based Polymeric Support Ink for Material Jetting. Additive Manufacturing, 16, 153-161. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addma.2017.06.001

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jun 11, 2017
• Online Publication Date: Jun 12, 2017
• Publication Date: 2017-08
• Deposit Date: Jul 11, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 11, 2017
• Journal: Additive Manufacturing
• Print ISSN: 2214-7810
• Electronic ISSN: 2214-8604
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 16
• Pages: 153-161
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addma.2017.06.001
• Keywords: Additive manufacturing; Inkjet printing; Material jetting; Support material; UV curing; TPGDA
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/880557
• Publisher URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addma.2017.06.001
• Additional Information: This article is maintained by: Elsevier; Article Title: A Tripropylene Glycol Diacrylate-based Polymeric Support Ink for Material Jetting; Journal Title: Additive Manufacturing; CrossRef DOI link to publisher maintained version: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addma.2017.06.001; Content Type: article; Copyright: Crown Copyright © 2017 Published by Elsevier B.V.
• Contract Date: Jul 11, 2017