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Korea: Optimizing High-Viscosity Ceramic Resins for Supportless SLA 3D Printing

In ‘Optimization and characterization of high-viscosity ZrO2 ceramic nanocomposite resins for supportless stereolithography,’ Korean researchers examine new materials for SLA printing, working to improve both dispersion and photo-curing properties. Pointing out that AM processes have been used to create a range of ceramic products via SLA and other methods, SLA is becoming most popular due to high resolution and good surface treatment.

UV-composite resins have been used previously for many studies, attempting to increase ceramic particles, but for most research, micro-particle content has been most common.

“Ceramic composite resins with higher micro-particle contents showed properties such as a lower viscosity and sedimentation, and their poor dispersion stability seemed to contribute to ultimate deterioration of the properties of the 3D-printed objects,” state the researchers. “Furthermore, this approach is difficult to apply to the supportless SLA 3D printing process, due to lower viscosity properties of resins.”

Here, the researchers created a high-viscosity APTMS (3-acryloxypropyl trimethoxysilane)-coated ZrO2 ceramic nanocomposite resins with 50 vol% of ceramic particles at a mixing ratio of 70:30 by volume for nano- and microparticles of ZrO2 for use in supportless SLA.

“Nano- and micro-particles of ZrO2 ceramic were mixed at various volume ratios of 70:30, 50:50, 30:70, and 0:100, and then the surface of the mixed ZrO2 ceramic particles were functionalized to acrylate groups through hydrolysis and condensation of APTMS. For the hydrolysis and condensation reactions, mixtures of APTMS, ethanol, and distilled water in ratios of 1:7.5:91.5 by mass were first vigorously stirred. Mixed ZrO2 ceramic particles were then added at 30 wt% to the APTMS solution, which was then hydrothermally treated at 100 °C for 3 h and dried under vacuum for 24 h at 100 °C.,” states the research study.

(a) Schematic illustration of the preparation processes of high-viscosity ZrO2 ceramic nanocomposite resins according to different polymer network structures for supportless SLA. (b) Comparison of objects 3D-printed using low-viscosity and high-viscosity resins produced by supportless SLA.

In the production of low-viscosity resins for complex geometries, the researchers recommend use of supports, due to results in the study yielding ‘sagging and distorted structures.’ With high-viscosity resins, however, they state that they almost seem to serve as the supports themselves.

“In other words, it is possible to achieve supportless SLA 3D printing using high-viscosity ceramic nanocomposite resins, which can help eliminate the washing process of supports and minimize the materials used,” state the researchers.

APTMS-coated ZrO2 ceramic nanocomposite resins showed improved properties like:

  • Higher dispersion stability
  • Greater photopolymerization
  • Larger cure depths than at other ratios

“For better rheological, dispersion and photo-curing properties, the optimum ratios of non-reactive diluents (IPA) were investigated by controlling the IPA contents, and the effects of the different polymer network structures on the 3D-printed objects before and after sintering were studied against the mixing ratios of HDDA and TMPTA monomers,” concluded the researchers.

“This is the start of a promising era for fabrication of customized zirconia dental implant restorations using supportless 3D printing.”

Ceramics and 3D printing are becoming more common, especially due to the wide range of applications that can be improved due to all the benefits of the new technology, such as titanium matrix composites with ceramics, glass-ceramics at the nanoscale, and even ceramics 3D printing robots. What do you think of this news? Let us know your thoughts! Join the discussion of this and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com.

Characteristics of objects 3D-printed using the APTMS-coated ZrO2 ceramic nanocomposite resins with different TMPTA contents and UV absorber contents: (a) optical images of green bodies and sintered bodies, (b) cross-sectional images of sintered bodies, (c) average grain size and density of sintered bodies, and (d) surface roughness of green bodies and sintered bodies. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

[Source / Images: ‘Optimization and characterization of high-viscosity ZrO2 ceramic nanocomposite resins for supportless stereolithography’]

 

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Clemson Researchers Use 3D Printing to Solve Pesky Battery Issues By Printing Ceramic Electrolyzers

We’re all familiar with that highly inconvenient moment of finding out your phone battery is dead (or worse, that the charger cord or cube is no longer functional for some often, unknown reason) or that the electric car is running out of ‘juice.’ As progress in technology just continues to climb to higher levels, however, you may find that you can take control of battery power with 3D printing. And while that is not exactly a new concept, it is becoming even more realistic thanks to recent research from Clemson University.

A laser-based 3D printing process may be able to create energy—along with enormous amounts of storage. Jianhua “Joshua” Tong, associate professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Clemson, is behind the project, which streamlines the manufacturing of electrolyzers using devices made of ceramic material. Tong explains that their innovative devices could actually use hydrogen to harness and store solar—or even wind—energy and use it to power larger items like cars.

“Our success will mean we can provide sustainable, clean energy,” Tong said. “That is the fantastic part. We are taking 3D printing to the next level.”

This research involving 3D printing was performed at Clemson’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering, where Tong also worked with Hai Xiao, Kyle Brinkman and Fei Peng. Because manufacturing of ceramics for industrial use has historically been very expensive, their goal was to create a manufacturing process that is affordable and realistic for modern applications.

Their process makes use of some of the greatest benefits in 3D printing, including better savings on the bottom line and greater speed in production, mainly due to their bypassing the need for a furnace to produce the electrolyzer. This could be extremely useful in terms of making fuel, as well as offering new potential in the creation of other products such as smartphone batteries with the possibility to stay charged for several days. Considering most of us are running low on battery power by the end of the day (or even more quickly), such products could be a real boon to the smartphone/battery industry overall. Using protonic ceramic electrolyzer stacks the team can let hydrogen act as a fuel store for batteries. By sintering and depositing the different ceramics needed simultaneously the team can make these energy storage devices in a completely new way. This is yet another application where we can see 3D printing used to bring changes to batteries.

Jianhua “Joshua” Tong, left, and Ph.D. student Shenglong Mu work in their lab at Clemson University, where they are developing a new technology that combines 3D printing and laser processing. (Photo credit: Clemson University)

The researchers also found that 3D printing offered incredible ease in production because of the ability to create a 3D design that can be emailed to another individual or company getting ready to 3D print a component or prototype. 3D design also means that prototypes can be changed easily in digital fashion—rather than working with a middleman who must go back to the drawing board for most changes.

The use of 3D printing integrated with other processes such as electronics offers infinite opportunities for designers and engineers hoping to create more streamlined works for users around the world. Find out more about Materials Science & Engineering at Clemson here.

What do you think of this news? Let us know your thoughts! Join the discussion of this and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com.

[Source: Design News]

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Researchers 3D Print Ceramics Without Time-Consuming and Complex Sintering Phase

In a paper entitled “3D printing dielectric ceramic without a sintering stage,” a group of researchers describes how they created dielectric ceramic parts through 3D printing, while circumventing the usually necessary sintering phase. Conventional sintering is both time- and energy-consuming, they explain. Normally, the ceramic powder is packed with organic additives under compression, followed by binder burnout and sintering at high temperatures. The process results in the densification of the powder into a solid piece due to thermally assisted mass transport. The time and energy consumed by the process is only one of the drawbacks – it’s also difficult to control shrinkage, which means that additional shaping of the part may be needed.

Powder bed fusion is the only single step process for the additive manufacturing of ceramics. In the paper, the researchers focused on material extrusion. They created a 3D printable paste by mixing the water soluble material lithium molybdate (Li2MoO4) with water.

“Lithium molybdate (Li2MoO4) is a non-toxic dielectric ceramic material, which has been studied for corrosion inhibition and moisture sensing applications as well as a scintillator material for detecting some rare nuclear processes, anode material for Li-ion batteries in modified form, and catalyst for methane oxidation,” the researchers explain. “For microwave devices, Li2MoO4 is of interest because of its beneficially low dielectric loss in addition to its low sintering temperature of 540 °C. However, Li2MoO4 is water-soluble, enabling component manufacture at temperatures as low as room temperature.”

In this method, known as room temperature fabrication or RTF, the lithium molybdate powder was moistened with water, and partial dissolution of the material formed an aqueous phase which aids particle packing and densification during the compression and avoiding shrinkage. The dissolved lithium molybdate recrystallizes during drying due to water evaporation, which cab be sped up by heat treatment. Because no sintering is required, there is no formation of extra phases or heat expansion mismatch.

Once a viscous mixture of solid ceramic particles and saturated aqueous phase was formed, sample discs were 3D printed using a low-cost syringe-style 3D printer. The samples were printed with smooth surfaces, the paste extruding successfully with good shear behavior. The microstructure of the printed parts was analyzed, as were the densities and dielectric properties. The water content in the mixture was kept as low as possible to avoid porosity, as well as the cracking and shrinkage that can occur with a longer drying time.

“The consolidation and densification of the printed parts occurred during both printing and drying of the paste due to extrusion pressure, capillary forces, and recrystallization of the dissolved Li2MoO4. Complete drying of the paste was ensured by heating at 120 °C,” the researchers state. “The microstructure showed no delamination of the printed layers. Relatively high densities and good dielectric properties were obtained, especially when considering that no sintering and only pressure from the extrusion was employed. This approach is expected to be feasible for similar ceramics and ceramic composites.”

Authors of the paper include Maria Väätäjä, Hanna Kähäri, Katja Ohenoja, Maciej Sobocinski, Jari Juuti and Heli Jantunen.

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These 3D Printed Chocolates Are Inspired By Natural Wonders and Exotic Locales

Artist Ryan L. Foote works in an appealing medium – chocolate. His creations are inspired by architecture and the natural world, particularly natural minerals and geological formations, and they look almost too pretty to eat. Not eating them, however, would be to miss out on some fantastic flavors. For the last three years, Foote has been living in Melbourne and Hong Kong, traveling back and forth for different projects. His chocolates are flavored with unusual ingredients from around both regions, such as Australian botanicals and traditional Hong Kong flavors.

For example, the Australian collection contains flavors such as White Chocolate and Wattleseed, Lemon Myrtle and Macadamia Nut, Chocolate and Mountain Pepperberry and Avocado Smash. The Hong Kong collection features flavors like Egg Tart, Buttery Pineapple Bun, Red Bean Ganache and Salted Coconut.

Foote’s creations are made using 3D printing, allowing him to create fascinating, intricate shapes. He combines 3D printing with traditional chocolatier techniques for his eye-catching designs.

“For the last few years I have been working on reinventing the traditional soft centered chocolate for the digital age,” said Foote. “There have been some exciting things happening in the bean-to-bar space but I felt the traditional bon bon has remained more or less the same.”

Foote’s career has taken him to all corners of the art world, including design, food and beverage, theatre, and events. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Sculpture and Spatial Practices at the Victorian College of the Arts. He then went on to produce numerous exhibitions and installations both in Australia and overseas, while at the same time designing and producing runway sets for various fashion festivals and brands including  Mercedes Australian Fashion, L’Oréal Melbourne Fashion Festival, Rosemount Australian Fashion Week, Sydney Shanghai Fashion Week and more.

 

 

 

Foote eventually began experimenting with adding food to his installations, in addition to experimenting with sound, light and fashion. He at first partnered with chefs and culinary firms before beginning to make his own culinary art, which included 3D printed food and handmade flatware. He eventually started to focus on chocolate, producing updated versions of the traditional bon bon. He also received many requests for his porcelain plates, so he started R L Foote Design Studio to focus on high-end designer ceramics.

In 2018, he formed his chocolate company, and recently launched a Kickstarter campaign that is trying to raise AUS $10,000 by November 17th. Rewards for backers include drinking chocolate as well as bon bons, in addition to some ceramic tableware like a 3D printed cup that was inspired by one of Foote’s chocolate shapes.

3D printing has opened up new possibilities for beautiful chocolate art. All of the artistic presentation in the world, however, is rendered meaningless if the chocolate itself doesn’t taste good, so that’s always the biggest question. Foote has obviously put forth a great deal of effort to discover and utilize some highly exotic flavors, and while some of them might be risky, it’s a risk that several people are willing to take, as the Kickstarter campaign has already acquired more than two dozen backers.

If you try any of these chocolates, let us know how they are! Discuss this and other 3D printing topics at 3DPrintBoard.com or share your thoughts below. 

 

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3D Printing Glass-Ceramics at the Nanoscale

Micro-graphs of different initial and treated structures (1000 ◦ C for 2h). Down-sizing of solid volumetric and free-form structures (with correspondingly high and low initial volume fractions of polymer). From top to bottom: (a) a free-form sculpture Vytis (Coat of arms of Lithuania), (b) homogeneous cube structure, (c) photonic crystal (periodic) structure with cage and (d) hexagonal scaffold.

Many methods are used to develop 3D printing materials, and the sources for new 3D printing materials are seemingly endless. In a study entitled “Additive Manufacturing of 3D Glass-Ceramics down to Nanoscale Resolution,” a group of researchers use a sol-gel resin to fabricate an inorganic ceramic.

Illustration of the main steps in synthesis of ceramics out of hybrid SZ2080 followed from laser induced polymerization that occurs during direct laser writing. During first stage of calcination, organic part is removed from the matrix and an inorganic glass matrix forms. As temperature is increased further, crystallization occurs and polycrystalline ceramic phase forms. Crystal structure of cristobalite and t-ZrO2 are shown in bottom row.

“Fabrication of a true-3D inorganic ceramic with resolution down to nanoscale using sol-gel resist precursor is demonstrated,” the researchers explain. “The method has an unrestricted free-form capability, control of the fill-factor, and high fabrication throughput. A systematic study of the proposed approach based on ultrafast laser 3D lithography of organic-inorganic hybrid sol-gel resin followed by a heat treatment enabled formation of inorganic amorphous and crystalline composites guided by the composition of the initial resin.”

A popular hybrid organic-inorganic sol-gel resist SZ2080 was converted into a material with entirely different properties through polymer-to-ceramic transition via high temperature sintering and oxidation. The silica and zirconia in the original material in the resist in the 20% inorganic part of the component led to the emergence of silica and zirconia crystalline phases in the final sintered ceramic material. In addition, “a proportional downscaling of the 3D polymerized object takes place with significant volume change of 40-50% dependent on annealing protocol without distortion of the proportions of the initial 3D design,” meaning that complex nanoscale patterns can be formed.

For the experiment, the researchers 3D printed different structures including bulk-cubes, periodic-3D woodpile micro lattices, free form structures, micro-sculptures, combining bulk and nanometer feature elements with complex bends, and macroscopic hexagonal 3D lattices which are usually used as artificial cell scaffolds.

“As the temperature increases the spectral shape changes and evolves via qualitatively two distinct form-factors,” the researchers state. “Close examination of the initial spectrum and comparison to that for T = 1000◦C reveals that they differ by the molecular vibrations which can be associated with the carbon-carbon, carbon-oxygen, carbon-hydrogen bonds. After heat-treatment those spectral lines vanishes. The new spectral form coincides with that typical for silica glass; we measured a control sample of fused silica.”

High temperature calcination of the 3D polymerized structures, created by 3D laser writing in the SZ2080 polymer resist, produced either silica-based glass or a polycrystalline ceramic pure inorganic material. A glass phase dominated in samples annealed at temperatures up to 1200°C, while formation of polycrystalline silica and zirconia was observed in samples annealed above 1200ºC.

“The presented modifications of silica-zirconia-rich resist SZ2080 from glass to polycrystalline ceramic by annealing shows a principle of the thermally guided 3D material printing which has nanoscale resolution,” the researchers conclude. “Isotropic down-sizing of the initial 3D polymerized objects with a volume fraction of 0.5-to-1 simplifies fabrication since there is no need to alter proportions of the initial material as it is widely used in DLW 3D nanolithography of photonic crystals, micro-optics and biomedical scaffolds in order to eliminate the effect of anisotropic shrinkage.”

Uniform 3D down-scaling by 3D nano-sintering. SEM micro-graph of a ceramic micro-sculpture after sintering at 1200◦C for one hour (right). Initial material SZ2080 resist (all dimensions were 1.7× larger; note the different scale bars)

The mechanical properties of the final structures, according to the researchers, acquire new features, such as resilience in harsh physical and chemical environments.

“Since nanoscale materials can initiate precipitation and guide growth of nano-crystallites, a wide field for experimentation horizons are widened by the presented modality of additive manufacturing,” they add.

Authors of the paper include Darius Gailevicius, Viktorija Padolskyte, Lina Mikoliūnaite, Simas Šakirzanovas, Saulius Juodkazis and Mangirdas Malinauskas.

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A New 3D Printing Process CODE: 3D Printed Ceramics with Functionally Graded Materials

Several different methods have been developed for the 3D printing of ceramic materials, and one of those is CODE, or Ceramic On-Demand Extrusion, a recently developed extrusion-based process for the fabrication of dense, functional ceramic components. In a paper entitled “Fabricating Functionally Graded Materials by Ceramic On-Demand Extrusion with Dynamic Mixing,” a group of researchers discusses using the CODE process to create functionally graded materials, or FGM.

Functionally graded materials are defined by the researchers as “characterized by gradual variations of material compositions over volumes, which allows for a combination of materials or material properties not typically achievable in monolithic materials.” There has been a lot of interest in alumina-zirconia  (Al2O3/ZrO2) components for applications such as prosthetic ball joints. In these components, the tough zirconia core provides high strength and reduces the risk of cracking, then transitions to an alumina surface, which provides long life within a human body.

“Additive manufacturing (AM) processes are especially advantageous for fabricating FGM components due to the layer-by-layer nature of the processes,” the researchers state. “Considering that the melting temperatures of ceramics are usually too high for thermal-based melt deposition and the fact that the ink jetting-based ceramic AM processes are subject to high porosity, material extrusion-based AM processes are the most favorable method for fabricating ceramic FGM components.”

In the study, the researchers developed a dynamic mixing device for the CODE system for the fabrication of FGM components. Two materials – alumina and zirconia – were extruded through separate extruders into the mixing chamber of the dynamic mixer with controlled flowrates. The mixer then blended those pastes into a homogeneous mixture, which was deposited through nozzles to create FGM components with planned material compositional distribution. The components were then post-processed and characterized to assess the functionality and accuracy of the dynamic mixing device.

Some deformation occurred in the sintered components, to the point of cracking and delamination. Deformation was also observed after the bulk drying of components, and the researchers chalk this up to the mismatch in drying shrinkage of the two pastes. The deformation during the sintering process, however, was attributed to the mismatch of sintering shrinkage and thermal expansion of the two materials.

“Larger differences in material composition between layers lead to larger stresses caused by the mismatch of material properties, which explains the fact that the larger step of changing composition led to larger amounts of deformation,” the researchers state. “A smoother (reduced) gradient of material composition is likely to reduce the amount of deformation and the risk of part failure. Adjusting the inherent properties of the raw materials to reduce the mismatch of shrinkage could be another effective way of mitigating the stress and deformation.”

Vickers hardness was also measured and was shown to decrease as the volume percentage of zirconia increased.

Overall, the study shows a promising method of 3D printing ceramic functionally graded materials. Although the printed components were not perfect, further steps can be taken in the future to reduce deformation and failure.

Authors of the paper include Wenbin Li, Austin J. Martin, Benjamin Kroehler, Alexander Henderson, Tieshu Huang, Jeremy Watts, Gregory E. Hilmas and Ming C. Leu.

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3D Printing Composite Ceramics with FDM and Sintering

Left: pure zirconia; middle: zirconia/metal composite; right: pure metal

Additive manufacturing has rapidly become more advanced than it used to be, moving far beyond the days when components could only be 3D printed out of a single plastic or metal material. Now other materials, such as ceramics, can be 3D printed as well. Ceramics 3D printing has progressed quickly in the past few years, and ceramic materials with different properties can now be combined. A paper entitled “Hybridization of Materials and Processes by Additive Manufacturing” takes a look at the 3D printing of ceramics with different colors or pore structures, and even ceramics with stainless steel added.

In the study, the researchers chose two feedstock-based 3D printing methods for combining either porous and dense ceramic components, black and white zirconia or stainless steel and zirconia. For the first method, FFF 3D printing, a dual-nozzle 3D printer was used; the first print head was loaded with zirconia filament and the second was loaded with a 17-4PH stainless steel filament. The same parameters were used to print both materials, though the print head temperatures differed slightly.

Cuboid samples were 3D printed, alternating the materials every two or three layers. The samples were then debinded and sintered, leading to dense, well-bonded parts.

In another procedure, the researchers used thermoplastic 3D printing, which combines the advantages of FFF, robocasting and inkjet printing, using a dropwise deposition of a viscous thermoplastic material for building a ceramic component. This method has a number of advantages, including the following:

  • There are almost no restrictions concerning the applied powder material, because the consolidation of the droplets occurs by increasing the viscosity during cooling
  • Composite or multi-material objects can be printed by using two or more printing heads
  • By using a pure thermoplastic binder in one print head, support structures can be built up in parallel to the component
  • Completely dense ceramic components can be produced thanks to the high packing density in the green component
  • Small droplets enable a high resolution in critical volumes
  • Precise deposition of small droplets can be combined with fast jetting of molten suspensions

For their experiments the researchers prepared zirconia suspensions using nanoscale zirconia powder. To produce black and white components, another suspension was prepared using a TZ-Black powder. As a binder system, a mixture of paraffin and beeswax was used.

“The binder system and a dispersing agent were heated up to 100 °C and homogenized for 30 min in a heatable dissolver,” the researchers explain. “Then powder and if necessary pore forming agents (PFA) like polysaccharide were added and the suspensions were homogenized by stirring for 2 h at 100 °C.”

The samples were printed, debinded and sintered. After sintering, nearly dense and porous volumes were combined in one component. To illustrate the different porosities, the samples were placed in front of a light, with the more porous sections appearing darker.  Both approaches, FFF and thermoplastic 3D printing, allowed the researchers to create components with varied properties, whether that be material, porosity or color.

Authors of the paper include Tassilo Moritz, Uwe Scheithauer, Steven Weingarten, Johannes Abel, Robert Johne, Alexander Michaelis, Stefan Hampel and Santiago Cano Cano.

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Cunicode Uses Code to Generate Beautiful, Unique 3D Printed Art

It’s truly amazing what can be done artistically with 3D printing. The medium allows for plenty of design freedom, and some artists have even taken the approach of using Gcode to generate unique works of art. There’s something fascinating about using code to create art; it’s a true melding of creativity and technology, and nothing like it was ever possible until recently. 3D printing art studio Cunicode was founded in 2011, and is run by Bernat Cuni, a product designer who specializes in digital fabrication. Through the studio, he collaborates with other individuals and service providers to create digitally-generated works of art.

Cunicode’s latest work, Permutation, is a collection of stoneware. Each piece is composed of nine basic units placed around a cylinder. They were designed in Rhino and Grasshopper and 3D printed by BCN3D Technologies on a PotterBot 3D printer. The number of variations that can be generated by the code is truly staggering. For example, one piece, titled “P114.3,” could have been made with 148,791,629,670,981,130,805,037,453,479,575,340 different combinations. That’s one hundred and forty eight decillion, seven hundred and ninety one nonillion, six hundred and twenty nine octillion, six hundred and seventy septillion, nine hundred and eighty one sextillion, one hundred and thirty quintillion, eight hundred and five quadrillion,  and thirty seven trillion, four hundred and fifty three billion, four hundred and seventy nine million, five hundred and seventy five thousand, three hundred and forty. Yikes.

Ironically, there’s something ancient-looking about the pieces themselves, their combinations of lines, dots and swirls resembling some kind of old written language. One could make a philosophical statement about art coming full circle, about the newest form of art mirroring the oldest, about digital fabrication creating similar works to what humans created thousands of years ago. If you don’t want to get that deep, however, you can still appreciate the ceramic pieces for their beauty.

Cunicode’s other projects are just as fascinating. In one, called art.faces, eight famous paintings were selected, and the designers allowed the Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) to “perform a direct regression of a volumetric representation of the 3D facial geometry from a single 2D image.” In other words, the faces in the paintings were turned into 3D representations. They’re almost eerie to look at, as though there’s something alive about them.

Another work, Tree Ring, takes photogrammetry data captured from a live tree and turns it into beautiful rings that look like metallic slices of a tree trunk. Others include 3D figurines made from children’s drawings, GPS tracks turned into tiny 3D printed mountains, and experimental jewelry and coffee cups.

Some people are still skeptical about 3D printed art, but in my opinion, there’s no question that digital fabrication is just as valid an art form as any other. Deep knowledge of the technology is required to generate art like Permutation and Cunicode’s other works, as well as the creativity to harness the technology to create something both visually appealing and brand new. It takes just as much craftsmanship to create something digitally as it does manually – and thankfully, the idea that 3D printed art isn’t true “art” seems to be fading.

If you’re interested in creating an experimental project using digital fabrication, Cunicode is accepting requests for collaboration.

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[Images: Cunicode]

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Team Effort Uses 3D Printing to Restore Coral Reefs

[Image: SECORE: Paul Selvaggio]

Coral reefs are the most diverse ecosystems on Earth, with thousands of animal and plant species living in their colorful ocean-floor habitats. These reefs are in quite a bit of trouble currently, however. In the past 30 years, 50 percent of the world’s coral reefs have died and if changes aren’t made to slow the progression of climate change and curb other human-caused damage to the reefs, 90 percent of them may die in the next century. Coral reefs aren’t just vital to the plants and animals that call them home, but to humans as well – they provide a lot of income through tourism and fishing, as well as protecting coastlines during violent storms.

Saving them, therefore, is critical, and involves some human intervention at this point. Coral are sessile animals, meaning that they take root like plants but capture their food from the ocean water. Coral polyps root themselves in ocean rocks, gradually reproducing and growing until they form the lush, brightly colored reefs that people travel thousands of miles to see. It’s a slow process, though – coral reefs grow by centimeters each year, taking thousands of years to become large and thriving. Right now, coral reefs don’t have thousands of years, so they need our help.

Several organizations have been trying to help coral by 3D printing artificial reefs and sinking them in the ocean in hopes of attracting free-floating coral polyps to embed themselves and begin reproducing. An organization called SECORE International (Sexual Coral Reproduction) is also using 3D printing, but taking a more hands-on, aggressive approach. SECORE is a nonprofit global network of scientists, public aquarium professionals and local stakeholders working to protect and restore coral reefs. Along with its partners, which include the California Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the Nature Conservancy, SECORE is developing restoration processes that leverage the natural reproductive habits of coral.

3D printed seeding units. [Image: SECORE/Valérie Chamberland]

Certain coral species naturally broadcast egg and sperm cells, which are collected by SECORE, fertilized, and then raised in tanks until they become freely swimming larvae. Those larvae are then introduced to 3D printed “seeding units” that resemble places on natural reefs where coral would attach. Once the coral have embedded themselves, the seeding units are planted on reef areas in need of restoration.

It’s an effective approach, but a costly one, unfortunately.

“One of the ways SECORE is aiming to reduce these costs is by designing seeding units that do not need to be manually attached to the reef, but rather can be sown from a boat or other method, similar to how a farmer would sow seeds in a field,” said SECORE Project and Workshop Manager Aric Bickel.

3D printing is another way to keep costs down, as well as to rapidly produce the seeding units. SECORE aims to produce a million of the units by 2021, and hundreds of thousands of units annually by then. Phase One of the project is taking place in the Caribbean, with research and training hubs in Mexico, Curaçao and the Bahamas.

“3D printing allows us to do a bit of rapid prototyping. We were looking at several different materials, and 3D printing allows us to print a variety of materials,” Bickel said. “It also saves the cost of having to make molds or castings which, particularly for the initial prototypes, would be a significant amount of money invested.”

A diver with a tray of the seeding units [Image: SECORE/Benjamin Mueller]

CAS is one of SECORE’s primary funding providers, and because SECORE is a small team with limited engineering capabilities, CAS turned to the Autodesk Foundation, with which it looked into various design firms for help with the development of the seeding units.

“In collaboration with the Foundation, we reached out to several design firms,” Bickel said. “Emerging Objects seemed like they would be the best folks to help us out with this next design phase and hopefully with the iterative design phases as we go forward.”

One of the main challenges SECORE has been having is finding the best material and design combination for the seeding units. Not just any shape can be used – the units need to be able to wedge themselves into the reefs without manual assistance. The material is an issue, too. SECORE had been using rough cement for the seeding units, but that material worked a little too well – in addition to attracting corals, it also attracted quite a few competing organisms.

“One issue was with competition from other species on the units themselves,” said Bickel. “What the trials showed is that a slicker surface will cut down on that potential competition. The needle that you have to thread here is having a surface that’s rough enough for corals to settle on and to attach to but smooth enough that it’s not a good location for other organisms such as sponges and algae to attach to.”

Several years of trials and experiments revealed ceramic to be a good potential material for the seeding units. Emerging Objects has plenty of experience in the experimental use of 3D printed ceramic, but needed to be able to 3D print the material on a large scale, so the company reached out to Boston Ceramics for help.

“Boston Ceramics is one of the few companies we’re aware of in the world that can potentially meet some of the demands for the number of substrates we’ll be using,” said Bickel.

The team used Autodesk Netfabb to design the original shape, a tetrapod, for the seeding units, and has been experimenting with other designs that are better suited to landing and wedging themselves in the surfaces of the reefs and protecting the larvae. One of those designs looks like a ninja throwing star.

[Image: SECORE/Valérie Chamberland]

“The question we posed to our working group was, ‘Can you give us your best impression of what promotes coral larvae to grow, and what’s going to allow them to survive in the ocean as they grow up in these early life stages?’” said Bickel.

The SECORE project is not one of immediate gratification. The organization grows its corals from embryos in small conglomerations of cells, and depending on the species, it can take several years for the corals to become sexually mature. In earlier life stages, however, the coral can still provide habitats for fish and other species.

This elkhorn coral was outplanted by SECORE five years ago. Since then, it has grown into a mature colony, which now spawns with other elkhorn colonies in the waters of Curaçao. [Image: SECORE/Paul Selvaggio]

“It’s definitely an investment in the future,” Bickel said. “I think that with really complicated ecosystems, we’re talking many years before you start seeing comparable structure return to areas that are being restored. The main focus at the moment is, can we improve our methods and our technologies to upscale this type of restoration to the levels needed to counteract the decline?”

SECORE isn’t the only organization working to do so, and the hope is that with enough of them putting effort into restoring coral reefs, the damage can be mitigated and even reversed.

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[Source: Autodesk]