Throughout the past few years, 3D printing has become extremely popular within the civil engineering industry. Nonetheless, the ways items are being printed are changing daily with new discoveries.
Typically, a custom part is designed and then simply printed. However, only one material can be put into a printer at once. If multiple materials can be inserted at a time, manufacturers can better control heat properties, and environmental adaptation, etc. New research will help manufactures reduce the steps and decrease to only one machine that prints all of the designs. By having all materials inserted at once, there will be no need for adhesives. This will allow for designs to be ever stronger than they already are.
"Multimaterial additive manufacturing has opened the doors to so many different possible creations,” according to Science Daily. “It has allowed us to be bolder and be more creative. This allows us to vary the composition and add functionality to a product during 3D printing that is traditionally very difficult to achieve, and we can do this in a single process with a single machine.” said Bandyopadhyay, Endowed Chair Professor in the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering.
Source: Science Daily