SRNL and Partners Advance 3D Printing With New CRAFT Technology

Source Domain: www.energy.gov

SRNL, the sole national laboratory sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management, hopes to leverage its new Advanced Manufacturing Collaborative facility to further develop CRAFT and other related additive manufacturing technologies alongside academic and industry partners.

Leguizamon played a pivotal role in uncovering the groundbreaking science behind CRAFT during his tenure at Sandia National Laboratories. There, his team made a remarkable discovery: by changing light intensity during printing, they could produce materials with varying levels of clarity. Looking deeper, Leguizamon found that these changes in clarity align with shifts in the material’s molecular structure, which normally required chemical methods or high-temperature processing.

Leguizamon continued his work on the CRAFT project after arriving at SRNL. He drafted a clear narrative to refine CRAFT’s mechanics and to optimize the process. He also formed partnerships with the University of Texas at Austin, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories.

“CRAFT represents a shift in how we think about manufacturing plastic parts,” said Patrick Garcia, SRNL associate lab director. “Instead of accepting materials as they come off the printer, we can now design them with specific material properties for a specific purpose from the very beginning of the process.”

The University of Texas team recently demonstrated a real-world application of CRAFT by printing a detailed model of a human hand. The printed hand mimics the characteristics of skin, bones, ligaments, and tendons, all using a single material. Models like this could be used to teach medical students or to help develop advanced protective gear.

CRAFT offers a new pathway for creating advanced thermoplastics tailored to specific applications. Industries such as aerospace, biomedicine and energy systems could use this technology designed directly into 3D printed parts.

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