Laboratory Facilities
- 3D Printing with Aerosol Jet Printing
http://aerosol-printing.unibs.it
Optomec’s Aerosol Jet process is an additive process, which deposits a wide variety of materials onto a wide variety of substrates without conventional masks or thin-film equipment.
The aerosol is generated by using an ultrasonic transducer or a pneumatic nebulizer. For the generation of aerosols from low viscosity suspensions, the ultrasound transducer is usually preferred. The main reason is the fact that much less of 1 ml of suspension is required for processing. For high viscosity suspensions up to 1000 cP (comparable to the viscosity of honey), the pneumatic nebulizer is used. After the generation, the aerosol flow is focused by means of a deposition head so as to form a coaxial flow between the aerosol stream and a gas stream which acts as a sheath. For the gas used as a sheath is employed nitrogen, because it is a relatively inexpensive inert gas, or compressed air. Because of the coaxial flow, the gas stream prevents contact of the aerosol stream with the nozzle inner layer and this avoids the clogging. In the print head, the aerosol stream, which consists of many individual droplets, is concentrated up to a tenth of the nozzle diameter. Using a nozzle diameter of 100 microns, a width of lines of less than 10 microns may be generated. The aerosol can be deposited on the planar surfaces and on surfaces not planar moving the print module relatively to the substrate surface. After the deposition, the structure can be sintered laser.
- Digital Image Correlation
The ARAMIS digital image correlation system is an advanced 3D measurement tool for better understanding material and component behavior. ARAMIS is a non-contact and material independent measuring system providing high resolution images, and highly accurate information about a component’s 3D shape, as well as strain and deformation response for a test article subject to a load or force. The Digital Image Correlation system is an optical replacement for strain gauges, extensometers, accelerometers, LVDTS, laser trackers, laser scanners, scanning laser vibrometers, and other deformation tools.