Additive manufacturing by UV laser direct writing of UV-curable PDMS
Proc. Lasers in Manufacturing (LiM)
2017
Type: Zeitschriftenaufsatz (non-reviewed)
Abstract
The combination of photo-curable polymers and laser direct writing technique established one of the well-known technologies in the field of additive manufacturing. Recently, 2D/3D structuring of an elastic polymer material is required as an advanced technique for various different research fields. In this study, we have demonstrated UV laser photo-polymerization of elastic 2D/3D structures using UV-curable Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). In this technique, UV curable PDMS was locally polymerized to fabricate 1D and 2D single layer structures, as well as 3D multi-layer structures with resolution in micrometer-scale and structure dimension in millimeter-scale. In addition, a hybrid technique of aerosol jet printing followed by UV laser direct writing was developed to realize 2D patterning of thinner UV curable PDMS layer without solvents. The polymerized PDMS had good transparency and elasticity as same as common thermal curing-type PDMS. The hybrid technique of aerosol jet printing followed by UV laser direct writing achieved the thinnest layer thickness of UV curable PDMS as small as 1.6 µm on the free-form surface.