Morphogenic Growth 3D Printing

Inspired by nature's morphogenesis, a new 3D printing process –growth printing (GP)– takes advantage of a self-propagating curing front to produce 3D polymeric parts following a growth-like development plan. The propagation of the curing front is driven by the exothermic polymerization of dicyclopentadiene (DCPD), which transforms the liquid resin into a stiff polymer as it propagates at 1 mm s⁻¹. GP is triggered when a heated initiator contacts the uncured liquid resin in an open container. The initiator nucleates the frontal polymerization reaction and the isotropic radial propagation of the growth front. Simultaneously, the initiator is moved up across the free surface of the resin, pulling the cured object out of the uncured resin. The motion trajectory of the initiator with respect to the free resin surface controls the growth morphology of the 3D part. An inverse design algorithm is developed to produce 3D parts by modeling the reaction-diffusion-driven solidification process. This process has substantial energy savings and high printing speeds.