Cellular solids have diverse potential applications, including bio-medical applications, tissue scaffold, aerospace, automotive, marine, and defense industries. Stochastic foams and periodic cellular structures (open and closed cells) are a potential candidate for multi-functionality with superior performance, i.e., meta-materials. Despite the immense interest and previous progress in manufacturing 3D metallic lattice structure and part, there still lacks a versatile and scalable manufacturing technique that can significantly advance the lightweight and multi-functional part development. A novel DINDON lattice structure manufacturing process is proposed in this paper, which has the potential to overcome the shortcomings. The proposed hierarchical process has four segments: DesIgn, beNding, Dip and jOiN (DINDON). In the ‘design’ segment, the R^3^ space is voxelized, and the unit cell will be fitted with lattice members. The members are connected following a connectivity algorithm to make it continuous. The digital information is then stored in a hierarchical data storage model constructing neutral data architecture with embedded continuity. An automatic wire-bending robotic arm is developed and used in the ‘bending’ segment. Continuously fed 1D metal wires are bend following the machine language interface, which will create a loose lattice structure. Interlayer eutectic alloy (ink) solution containing melting point depressant (MPD) will be prepared in the ‘dip’ segment. The loose lattice will be dipped for the delivery of the joining alloy at the node as the coat. The structure will be then placed into the vacuum furnace for material diffusion, and the node will be joined to create the lattice structure which completes the DINDON process. The DINDON process is capable of fabricating micro to mesoscale open-cell lattice structure which has the potential to fill the ‘opportunity void’ in the Ashby chart. The proposed research, for the first time, provides comprehensive fabrication guidelines for lattice structure using continuous thin rod which will be highly transformative compared to the *status quo*.


Dindon: Micro to Mesoscale Metal Lattice Structure Fabrication With Continuous Thin Rod.

Division / Sponsor: 
Manufacturing Engineering Division (MED)

International Manufacturing Science and Engineering Conference - Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/MSEC/MSEC2020/volume/84256

JSME 2020 Conference on Leading Edge Manufacturing/Materials and Processing - Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/lemp/LEMP2020/volume/83624

MSEC2020 - Virtual Conference, LEMP2020 - Virtual Conference

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