3D Printing of Magnetorheological Elastomers (MREs) Smart Materials

Abstract

The purpose of this research work is to explore manufacturabilityof a variety of smart materials using additive manufacturing (AM) process and a specific kind of smart material; the Magnetorheological Elastomers (MREs) is investigated in depth in this paper. A multi-material 3D printing process was designed and set up to manufacture this kind of smart materials and the preliminary results are reported. The experimental device involves a double nozzle print head which integrates dry powder printing and extrusion free forming method to make MREs with completely arbitrary distributions of magnetic particles within the matrix material. ALabVIEW program was developed to control the printing process. Using the process developed, a number of MRE samples were produced using silicone (as matrix material), iron and copper powders. Finally, the printed samples were analyzed and the process was evaluated accordingly.