Preliminary Study on Effects of the Process Parameters on Mechanical Properties in Liquid Holographic Volumetric Additive Manufacturing Process

Abstract

Abstract The momentum of the additive manufacturing research is on a spurt. Additive manufacturing, also known as 3D printing process has been attracting the attention of the manufacturing community worldwide over the past decade. The 3D printing technology promises significant advances and applications in the area of automobiles, electronics, and medical devices and so on. However, this technology currently suffers from several limitations including large time consumption, need for support structures and limited range of material selection. This prevents its application in mass production. Holographic 3D printing, also referred to as (volumetric additive manufacturing) process is a very recent technique which uses multiple light beams intensified to form a build volume. A photosensitive liquid resin is solidified using the principle of constructive interference. The single light beam is not enough to produce the required intensity to cure the resin. While the combined interference could generate the required energy. The resulting part is printed in a fraction of seconds at once in contrast with the traditional 3D printing technology. This research studies the feasibility of a novel holographic volumetric additive manufacturing with an ultraviolet source of 365 nm as the primary source of energy. This propels the polymeric photochemical reaction between the monomer molecules. Also, experiments are conducted, incorporating various viscosity levels of the photopolymer material to suppress the oxygen dissolution. At the same time to observe the rate of curing of the photopolymer material. Finally, the mechanical properties of the build volume are analyzed.