Stereolithography (SLA) and Digital Light Processing (DLP) for Flexible and Sustainable Micro-manufacturing

A special issue of Micromachines (ISSN 2072-666X). This special issue belongs to the section "D3: 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2024 | Viewed by 1830

Special Issue Editors


E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche—Institute of Intelligent Industrial Technologies and Systems for Advanced Manufacturing (STIIMA), 20133 Milano, Italy
Interests: manufacturing; micro manufacturing; micro machining; additive manufacturing; stereolithography; nanocomposite materials
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The demand for miniaturized components and parts with complex microscale features is continuously increasing in several sectors, e.g., electronics, medical, consumer goods, microfluidics, optics, automotive and aerospace. However, such objects still represent a challenge from a manufacturing point of view.

When considering polymeric materials, complex 3D microparts could be efficiently manufactured using the traditional Additive Manufacturing processes with some specific adjustments for the microscale. Among these technologies, vat photopolymerization processes (such as both stereolithography and digital light processing) are very promising since they allow one to achieve a very high resolution and an excellent part quality. Moreover, these processes can be exploited for the easy, cost-effective, flexible and sustainable rapid prototyping of customized microparts, since they do not require time consumption and costs for tooling. Eventually, embedding micro/nano particles in the photocuring resin allows one to improve the material’s properties and even to create smart materials (i.e. materials that can be modified by external stimuli) that are customized for specific applications, such as shape-morphing components, programmable materials, thermomagnetically responsive actuators and grippers, soft robotics, etc.

Accordingly, this Special Issue seeks to showcase research papers and review articles that focus on the novel advancements and applications of micro stereolithography and digital light processing techniques, including the topics of the process characterization and optimization, sustainability assessment and LCA, and the development of advanced materials.

Dr. Lara Rebaioli
Dr. Irene Fassi
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Micromachines is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • micromanufacturing
  • additive manufacturing
  • 3D printing
  • stereolithography
  • digital light processing
  • advanced materials
  • smart materials
  • sustainability
  • life cycle assessment (LCA)

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • e-Book format: Special Issues with more than 10 articles can be published as dedicated e-books, ensuring wide and rapid dissemination.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue polices can be found here.

Published Papers (1 paper)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

12 pages, 4226 KiB  
Article
Displacement Mapping as a Highly Flexible Surface Texturing Tool for Additively Photopolymerized Components
by Robert Bail and Dong Hyun Lee
Micromachines 2024, 15(5), 575; https://doi.org/10.3390/mi15050575 - 26 Apr 2024
Viewed by 1272
Abstract
Displacement mapping is a computer graphics technique that enables the design of components with regularly or randomly textured surfaces that can be quickly materialized on a three-dimensional (3D) printer when needed. This approach is, in principle, more flexible, faster, and more economical compared [...] Read more.
Displacement mapping is a computer graphics technique that enables the design of components with regularly or randomly textured surfaces that can be quickly materialized on a three-dimensional (3D) printer when needed. This approach is, in principle, more flexible, faster, and more economical compared to conventional texturing methods, but the accuracy of the texture depends heavily on the parameters used. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate how to produce a surface-textured part using polygonal (mesh) modeling software and a photopolymerizable resin and to develop a universal methodology to predict the dimensional accuracy of the model file log combined with a resin 3D printer. The printed components were characterized on a scanning confocal microscope. In the setup used in this study, the mesh size had to be reduced to 10% of the smallest feature size, and the textured layer had to be heavily (×4.5) overexposed to achieve the desired accuracy. As a practical application, two functional stamps with a regular (honeycomb) and a random texture, respectively, were successfully manufactured. The insights gained will be of great benefit for quickly and cost-effectively producing components with innovative patterns and textures for a variety of hobby, industrial, and biomedical applications. Full article
Show Figures

Graphical abstract

Back to TopTop