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Schematic of printing nozzle design

LLNL researchers have developed a piezo-driven jetting powder AM method that provides better control of the packing of printed powder. Powder is fed via a stainless-steel hopper to a nozzle; at the narrowest necking point the powder jams, and flow ceases.  A vibrating piezoelectric element (with through-thickness vibration mode) is driven by a 150V AC signal to disturb the jammed powder,…

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LLNL researchers have developed a method which utilizes functional alcohols to depolymerize polyurethane crosslinked networks. The functional alcohols show 5X increase in the depolymerization efficiency compared with current state of art (e.g. methanol, ethylene glycol).  The crosslinked polyurethane networks completely depolymerized into a liquid oligomer within 48 hours at ambient…

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3D printed Gyroid structure using novel long shelf-life silicone formulation

LLNL researchers have developed a novel photocurable silicone useful for producing three-dimensional objects via additive manufacturing. The resin formulations consist of a mult-component siloxane polymers with different functionalities, a platinum catalyst, a photoinitiator, and other organic peroxides.  The LLNL invention involves controlling the spatial and temporal aspects of the…

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New multi-part nozzle design concept for (a) single orifice droplet jetting and (b) multi-orifice jetting

Nozzle design and manufacturing greatly affects the performance of LMJ printers.  This LLNL invention describes a novel multi-part nozzle design that improves their performance.

The approach that LLNL researchers developed involve:

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Photograph of glass sample unplated on one side (left) and plated with nickel phosphorous on the other (right)

LLNL researchers have continued to develop their pioneering DIW 3D-printed glass optics technology that allows for the 3D printing of single- and multi-material optical glass compositions in complex shapes. This LLNL invention further proposes incorporating dopants (including, but not limited to TiO2 and Pd) into slurries and inks for 3D printing of glass components that can then be directly…

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Schematic of ZMHD Liquid Metal Jetting Pressure Chamber

LLNL researchers developed an approach that uses a Z-pinch magnetohydrodynamic (“ZMHD”) pulse as the pressure pulse to emit the liquid metal droplets.  ZMHD produces a large current pulse to traverse a column of conducting liquid metal.  This pulse induces a magnetic field through Ampere’s law, and that field then interacts with the current pulse via the Lorentz force to generate a…

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Liquid metal binder jetting concept illustrating a two-layer print sequence and the associated processing step

This invention, hereby called liquid metal binder jetting (LMBJ), uses a molten metal as the “binder” that is deposited on ceramic powder, resulting in a multi-material fabrication process that includes both the ceramic and metallic phase in the same process.  The simple process involves four steps:

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Stock image of 3d render of network made of wind turbines, solar panels, battery and house

LLNL researchers have designed and produced, both conductive and non-conductive porous electrode components manufactured for improved metal deposition, discharging, and fluid dynamics in hybrid flow batteries.  This is achieved through Direct Ink Writing (DIW) additive manufacturing.  The engineered 3D electrodes enable uniform current distribution and even metal deposition during…

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Picture of SLA printed structures using 3D printable nitrile-containing photopolymer resins

LLNL’s invention is a photopolymerizable polymer resin that consists of one or more nitrile-functional based polymers. The resin is formulated for SLA based 3D printing allowing for the production of nitrile-containing polymer components that can then be thermally processed into a conductive, highly graphitic materials. The novelty of the invention lies in (1) the photo-curable nitrile-…

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Incorporating Si3N4 nanofibers into an optimized ZrB2 formulation (a) 8 vol% (ZrB2), PVA 2wt%; (b) 8.5 vol% (ZrB2 + Si3N4 NF), PVA 2wt%

LLNL researchers refined custom mixing techniques and formulations in order to avoid clumping and fiber agglomerations for a flowable tailored feedstock that produces a homogeneous, survivable thermal barrier coating.  Formulation improvements coupled with unexpected nozzle coupling from Buchi spray dry components leads to the production of fiber containing spray dried feedstock that can…

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Diffuse discharge circuit breaker with latching switch

A thyristor will stay conducting until the current through the device is zero (“current zero”) or perhaps slightly negative.  LLNL’s approach is to use the opticondistor (“OTV”) to force this current zero in order to force the device into an “off” state.  By combining a light-activated thyristor with an OTV, a noise-immune, high efficiency, high-power switching device can be…

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Cutaway view of a nozzle with 500µm and 200µm diameter orifices next to each other

LLNL’s invention combines four approaches to enable on-the-fly multi-resolution metal droplet printing:  (1) a nozzle with two or more orifices of varying diameter and length, (2) a set of corresponding pressure pulses that can eject droplets out of some, but not all, orifices in either magnetohydrodynamic (MHD-LMJ) or Pneumatic-LMJ, (3) the ability to change the pressure pulse on demand…

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Device Assembly IL-13874

LLNL researchers’ approach to this challenge is to design a modular valve subsystem that redirects the flow away from the main nozzle to an “exhaust”. By re-routing the flow to a different exit port, steady state flow can be better maintained.  The re-routing requires actuators that work in tandem; open and close of the nozzle and exhaust valves have to be executed simultaneously.  …

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Schematic process flow for using and self-releasing an LCE model from cast material

LLNL researchers developed novel workflows where material is first cast into the LCE molds at room temperature.  Upon curing, the mold is induced to expand or contract (change shape) by external stimuli (light, heat, solvent) to self-release.  A reduction to practice example used silica-loaded silicone ink casted into a LCE cylinder mold.  It was cured at 100°C, and self-…

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Examples of different UV exposure patterns printed from the same multi-material resin.  Darker yellow regions have higher UV exposure times leading to tougher regions.

LLNL researchers have developed an innovative and uniform single-pot polymer multi-material system, based on a combination of 3 different reactive chemistries.  By combining the three different constituent monomers, fine control of mechanical attributes, such as elastic modulus, can be achieved by adjusting the dosage of UV light throughout the additive manufacturing process.  This…

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Shadowgraph Image from VAM (left).  Fluorescence Image from VAM (right).

Three important aspects of this invention are: (1) the formulation of a photocurable resin containing a fluorophore that exhibits AIE behavior; (2) the method of in-situ and real-time characterization for monitoring the reaction kinetics during the photopolymerization and UV-curing process; and (3) the application of a new 3D steganographic ink for 3D encrypted structure.

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Sequential self-folding of 2D polyimide sheets into 3D microsystems

The approach involves 3D printing hinges made of Pre-Stressed Polymers (“PSP”) onto polyimide (“PI”) substrates.  These hinges are then able to fold in response to externally applied stimuli, such as light.  First, 2D PI devices will be microfabricated.  Then, PSP infused with colored inks will be printed using Direct Ink Write (“DIW”) on the hinges of the PI devices.  When…

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Pneumatic DOD-LMJ printhead with supporting setup

LLNL’s approach to meet this challenge is to use a pneumatic DOD-LMJ method wherein the nozzle is filled with a molten pure metal or metal alloy.  There are two reservoirs in LLNL’s invention that are in direct contact with each other: the liquid metal reservoir that is constantly heated so the metal remains molten and an inert gas reservoir, which is connected to an inert gas pressure…

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Electrical Resistance diagnostic during a LPBF print process

Electrodes that measure current and voltage are connected to the LPBF build plate by magnetic metal arms.  These arms are placed on a steel weighted base that provides a high degree of mechanical flexibility to conform to small geometries and can be easily incorporated into a complex manufacturing system.  Furthermore, the electrodes are connected to tapered copper tips that can…

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LLNL energy grid protection device

The approach is to leverage the fact that a momentary “load” equal to the power transmission line impedance, (Z0), during the transient can suppress its propagation.  Z(0) is typically a fixed impedance of several hundred ohms based on the geometry of most single wire transmission lines.

So, an isolated self-powered opticondistor (OTV) system may provide an ultrafast method of…

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3D Printing of Ultem® at Ambient Conditions

The novel approach is to make Ultem® into an ink for DIW or droplet printing by dissolving Ultem® in solvents, such as tetrahydrofuran.  This produces a viscous solvent-melt that is loaded into an ambient temperature extrusion system and deposited into a defined structure by the 3D printer.  Solvent mobility is limited by the polymer structure, and further solvent removal allows…

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coextrusion nozzle takes 3 materials and prints them together in a coaxial geometry

LLNL’s novel approach is to use Direct Ink Write (DIW) with a co-extrusion nozzle to enable the extrusion of multiple materials as one coil.  With this method, LLNL researchers were able to produce an insulating wire that is composed of three different materials, axial conducting and insulating from its inner core to its outer sheath.  After heat treatment, the printed wireI was then…

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Optimization using component-wise ROM

Beam Element-based Topology Optimization (“BETO”) is one of the conventional ways to design microstructures.  It starts with an initial design that is composed of many beam elements.  LLNL’s invention uses accurate Component-wise Reduced Order Models (“CWROM”) rather than the inaccurate beam elements.  In doing so, the process becomes computationally efficient and fast, as each…

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High level diagram for in-situ characterization of projectiles in flight or falling droplets

LLNL’s novel approach is to use waveguide-based devices and microwave energy to perform characterization of the projectile or droplet.  Various embodiments of droplet devices can determine the size, motion (position, velocity, and acceleration), rate, and material elements of a moving element.  This invention uses a tubular housing having a first end (input port) and a second end (…

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Schematic of a mechanical logic gate

LLNL’s approach to designing logic gates uses heuristic as well as with the Freedom and Constraint Topologies (FACT) methods; these gates are then produced using existing additive manufacturing processes.  The 10,122,365 and 10,678,293 patents describe how to fabricate the gates; the 10,855,259 patent describ

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Boss Circuit Breaker

LLNL’s novel approach to enable MVDC power systems to operate safely is to develop a wideband gap bulk optical semiconductor switch (WBG BOSS) circuit breaker.  For higher power, efficiency and temperature operation, vanadium-doped silicon carbide (V-doped SiC) appears to be the most promising basis for WBG BOSS circuit breaker (other dopants like aluminum, boron and nitrogen may further…

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Current (left) and proposed (right) high density localized electrochemical deposition (HD-LECD) printing instrument.

LLNL’s approach is to design and fabricate a massively-parallel microanode printhead using a custom complementary metal-oxide semiconductor integrated circuit (CMOS IC) chip with independent electronics for each pixel.  This microanode in close proximity to the cathode surface will electroplate dissolved ions into a small voxel.  The probe then moves and continues to deposit material…

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Metal droplet printing in droplet mode (A) and constant pressure mode (B).

LLNL researchers have developed an approach is to use pneumatic droplet ejection devices to rapidly 3D print solid metal parts that also have a smoother surface finish than conventional liquid metal printing.  Pneumatic droplet ejection printers can be used in two different modes: “droplet mode” uses pulsed gas pressure to create individual droplets of liquid metal that are collected to…

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Sub-device integrated with Main device of the flow battery (A) and a cross-section of the sub-device (B)

LLNL researchers has developed an approach to mitigate HER on the ‘plating’ electrode, which uses a sub-device as a rebalancing cell to restore electrolyte properties, including pH, conductivity, and capacity across the main device of the flow battery.  This sub-device, which may need to be powered externally, has three major physical components: (1) a cathode electrode, (2) an anode…

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Electrical grid

LLNL has developed a novel methodology for using commercially available automated sensors and actuators which can be deployed at scale in large appliances and plug-in EVs to provide as needed electric grid stabilization capabilities. The approach comprises of a population of voltage relays with a range of setpoints that would gradually reduce load as voltage falls. More severe voltage…

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SEM images of powder particles after partial sintering

LLNL has developed a process to partially sinter starting material composed of smaller-sized powder particles to obtain a loose powder product that have larger-sized particles.   To avoid the undesired formation of a single fully-sintered piece, the starting powder material is heated for a relatively shorter time.  The time and temperature required for partial sintering is…

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Electrodeposition of Zn onto 3D printed copper nanowire (CuNW)

Improving the active material of the Zn anode is critical to improving the practicality of Zn-MnO2 battery technology. LLNL researchers have developed a new category of 3D structured Zn anode using a direct-ink writing (DIW) printing process to create innovative hierarchical architectures.  The DIW ink, which is a gel-based mixture composed of zinc metal powder and organic binders, is…

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Compared with conventional slurry-based film electrode manufacturing methods, dry laser powder bed fusion is promising in generating structured electrodes for high power, low cost lithium ion batteries

To address many of the aforementioned challenges of manufacturing LIBs and SSBs, LLNL researchers have developed a number of inventions that offer proposed solutions for their components:

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A sample of micro-architectured graphene aerogel, made from one of the lightest materials on Earth, sits atop a flower.

To overcome challenges that existing techniques for creating 3DGs face, LLNL researchers have developed a method that uses a light-based 3D printing process to rapidly create 3DG lattices of essentially any desired structure with graphene strut microstructure having pore sizes on the order of 10 nm. This flexible technique enables printing 3D micro-architected graphene objects with complex,…

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A schematic showing the cylinder style powder remover in action.  The electrode rotates while moving across the powder bed and attracts the excess powder/debris onto the dielectric layer

The novel approach developed by LLNL researchers is to use an electric field as the non-contact-based powder remover.  The main components of the remover are an electrode and a dielectric layer.  As the remover moves across the stage, a high voltage is applied to the electrode that forms an electric field between the electrode and the powder bed.  Under the influence of the…

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Illustration for 3-D Ultrasound Polymerization

This novel AM approach utilizes cavitation bubbles generated within liquid resin by ultrasonic energy that trigger, induce, or catalyze a polymerization process (3D Ultrasound Polymerization). Ultrasound may be generated by piezoelectric transducers or high-power lasers and by modulating the ultrasound wave (frequency and amplitude), the cavitation site could be directed.

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A microwave VAM system. Dynamic microwave fields from the applicator array focuses energy to arbitrary regions in the resin.

LLNL’s MVAM method comprises of a microwave applicator array coupled to a time-reversal beam steering algorithm to focus and deposit microwave energy in the feedstock material.  The selective focusing of high-power microwave fields results in delivery of localized energy to arbitrary regions in a 3D volume.  The localized area in the 3D volume heats up, allowing for the curing,…

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Comparison of fiber-reinforced polymer composite with fiber-reinforced glass composite

The approach is to combine the techniques of 3D printing aligned carbon fiber composites and melt-3D printing of glasses in a non-obvious manner to allow 3D printing (with controlled microstructure, fiber alignment, complex geometries, and advanced second order composite properties) of a new class of additively manufactured fiber-glass composites.  It involves four major elements: …

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Two-photon lithography print configuration modes: (a) traditional immersion medium vs. (b) dip-in laser lithography. (c) Scanning electron micrographs of a 2.5 mm tall pillar in the form of a gyroidal lattice printed in dip-in lithography with a photo-resin with a refractive index of 1.52

LLNL’s approach to producing refractive index matching (RIM) resin is to use a commercially available material known as polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) precursors.  To tune the refractive index, POSS can be functionalized with additives such as phenylthiol, until the refracted index match is achieved.  For example, for a 1.4 NA oil objective lens, a RIM resin with a…

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New class of lattice-based substrates

To get the best of both worlds – the sensitivity of LC-MS with the speed of PS-MS – and a functional substrate that can maintain sample integrity, LLNL researchers looked to 3D printing.  They have patented a novel approach to create lattice spray substrates for direct ionization mass spectroscopy using 3D-printing processes.

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3D Printing of High Viscosity Reinforced Silicone Elastomers

LLNL researchers, through careful control over the chemistry, network formation, and crosslink density of the ink formulations as well as introduction of selected additives, have been successful in preparing 3D printable silicone inks with tunable material properties.  For DIW (direct in writing) applications, LLNL has a growing IP portfolio around 3D printable silicone feedstocks for…

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LLNL’s method of 3D printing fiber-reinforced composites has two enabling features:

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STEP File Tensor

MBD captures the complete specification of a part in digital form and leverages (at least) the universal STEP file format. MBD has revolutionized manufacturing due to time and cost savings associated with containing all engineering data within a single digital source. LLNL researchers have been able to develop a novel encoding method to transform digital definitions in any given STEP file into…

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A cold-spray chamber is shown during deposition, with the nozzle at the top of the image and a near-full density sample being fabricated in the center. Particles of the brittle thermoelectric bismuth telluride are accelerated to more than 900 meters per second, or almost Mach 3, in inert gas and directed onto a copper surface, laying down the strips that form the basis of a functioning thermoelectric generator to harvest waste heat. Graphic by Jacob Long/LLNL
Versatile Cold Spray (VCS) enables deposition of brittle materials, such as thermoelectrics, magnets, and insulators, while retaining their functional properties. Materials can be deposited on substrates or arbitrary shapes with no requirement to match compositions. The VCS system is low cost, easily portable, and easy to use. VCS has been developed in a collaboration between Lawrence Livermore…
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multichannel_pyrometer

LLNL researchers have designed and tested performance characteristics for a multichannel pyrometer that works in the NIR from 1200 to 2000 nm. A single datapoint without averaging can be acquired in 14 microseconds (sampling rate of 70,000/s). In conjunction with a diamond anvil cell, the system still works down to about 830K.

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geothermal steam exhaust

LLNL has a patented process to produce colloidal silica directly from geothermal fluids. Livermore’s process uses membranes to produce a mono-dispense slurry of colloidal silica particles for which there are several applications. LLNL has demonstrated that colloidal silica solutions that result from extraction of silica from geothermal fluids undergo a transition to a solid gel over a range of…

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am_radioopaque_parts

LLNL has developed an optically clear iodine-doped resist that increases the mean atomic number of the part. AM parts fabricated with this resist appear radio-opaque due to an increase in the X-ray attenuation by a factor of 10 to 20 times. Optical clarity is required so that the photons can penetrate the liquid to initiate polymerization and radio opacity is required to enable 3D computed…

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Nanoscale 3d printing

LLNL has solved the challenges of depth-resolved parallel TPL by using a temporal focusing technique in addition to the spatial focusing technique used in serial writing systems. We temporally focus the beam (through optical set-up design) so that a sharp Z-plane can be resolved while projecting 2D “light sheets” that cause localized photo-polymerization. This enables printing of complex 3D…

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Nanoporus gold

By combining 3D printing and dealloying., researchers at LLNL have developed a method for fabricating metal foams with engineered hierarchical architectures consisting of pores at least 3 distinct length scales. LLNL’s method uses direct ink writing (DIW), a 3D printing technique for additive manufacturing to fabricate hierarchical nanoporous metal foams with deterministically controlled 3D…

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Metal 3d printing

LLNL scientists have developed a new metal additive manufacturing technique that uses diode lasers in conjunction with a programmable mask to generate 2D patterns of energy at the powder surface. The method can produce entire layers in a single laser shot, rather than producing layers spot by spot as is currently done in powder bed fusion methods.

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3D printed material by design
Livermore materials scientists and engineers are designing and building new materials that will open up new spaces on many Ashby material selection charts, such as those for stiffness and density as well as thermal expansion and stiffness. This is being accomplished with unique design algorithms and research into the additive manufacturing techniques of projection microstereolithography, direct…