Lattices, common in many 3D printing applications as an infill pattern, are the subject of a recent study into optimal isotropic stiffness.
Undertaken by a team of scientists atETH Zurich, Switzerland, this paper, first published online September 2018, discusses the potential impact of extremely stiff lattices, not just for the aerospace industry, but across “heat‐exchange, thermal insulation, acoustics, and biomedical engineering.”
In particular, the research establishes a new class of metamaterial termed “plate-lattices” which suggest a stiffness “up to three times higher than that of the stiffest truss‐lattices of equal mass.” According toProfessor Dirk Mohr, specialist in Computational Modeling of Materials in Manufacturing at ETH Zurich, these new lattices “will be the design of choice” when the 3D printing industry moves into mass manufacturing.
桁架还是格子？有什么不同？
通常被削减在一起，“桁架”和“晶格”形状通常是彼此同义的。Mohr教授解释说，援引世界上一些最具标志性的地标，“桁架原理很古老；长期以来，它一直用于半木结构的房屋，钢桥和钢铁塔，例如埃菲尔铁塔。我们可以透过桁架晶格，因此通常被视为理想的轻质结构。”
桁架在哪里可以被视为连接吗beams, or struts, plates are more like clusters of walls. Through computational modeling, Professor Mohr’s team are capable of creating rival lattice structures using these plates. The difference can be noted in the figure below.
Mass production ready
由于它们的复杂性，3D打印是制造这些板块的唯一方法。作为概念证明，这些板块的计算模型是由苏黎世团队在微观级别制造的。
Using a NanoscribePhotonic Professional GTsystem, cubes measuring 200 x 200 x 200 μm were 3D printed. These were then compression tested, leading to a yield strength “within a few percent of the theoretical limits for isotropic porous solids.” Though only produced at this scale, the scientists believe that the plate-lattices could be theoretically manufactured at any size. It’s just a case of the cost.
“If these kinds of lattices were to be additively manufactured from stainless steel today, they would cost as much per gram as silver,” says Professor Mohr. “But the breakthrough will come when additive manufacturing technologies are ready for mass production. Lightweight construction, the current cost of which limits its practical use to aircraft manufacturing and space applications, could then also be used for a wide array of applications in which weight plays a role.”
这项研究的完整结果：3D Plate‐Lattices: An Emerging Class of Low‐Density Metamaterial Exhibiting Optimal Isotropic Stiffness,” are published online inAdvanced Materialsjournal. It is co-authored by Thomas Tancogne‐Dejean, Marianna Diamantopoulou, Maysam B. Gorji, Colin Bonatti and Dirk Mohr.
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板块的计算模型。图片vie eth Zurich
