Design Aspects of Additive Manufacturing at Microscale: A Review

Abstract

Additive manufacturing (AM) technology has been researched and developed for almost three decades. Microscale AM is one of the fastest-growing fields of research within the AM area. Considerable progress has been made in the development and commercialization of new and innovative microscale AM processes, as well as several practical applications in a variety of fields. However, there are still significant challenges that exist in terms of design, available materials, processes, and the ability to fabricate true three-dimensional structures and systems at a microscale. For instance, microscale AM fabrication technologies are associated with certain limitations and constraints due to the scale aspect, which may require the establishment and use of specialized design methodologies in order to overcome them. The aim of this paper is to review the main processes, materials, and applications of the current microscale AM technology, to present future research needs for this technology, and to discuss the need for the introduction of a design methodology. Thus, one of the primary concerns of the current paper is to present the design aspects describing the comparative advantages and AM limitations at the microscale, as well as the selection of processes and materials.

Topology Optimization Based Material Design for 3D Domains Using MATLAB

“…where ∆K denotes the difference between matrix K 0 and the stiffness matrix of the current iteration; i max denotes the maximum number of reduced basis vectors to be created. It is worth noticing that the inverse of matrix K 0 is computed once at the first iteration of the process and is then used in (19) without the need to be computed again. The reduced basis matrix Φ is constructed in every iteration, while it is defined using Equation (19).…”

“…It is worth noticing that the inverse of matrix K 0 is computed once at the first iteration of the process and is then used in (19) without the need to be computed again. The reduced basis matrix Φ is constructed in every iteration, while it is defined using Equation (19). In addition, the first reduced basis vector Φ 1 needs to be updated during the optimization procedure.…”

“…Next, a compact description of the three MOR models implemented in the final formulation is presented in Section 3, followed by a detailed description of the MATLAB code implementation in Section 4, while a detailed description for implementing the code in three test examples can be found in Section 5. Topology optimization is directly linked with additive manufacturing [18,19]. Thus, in the test examples in Section 5, some of the resulting optimized topologies on the micro scale are converted into a STL format.…”

Topological and Mechanical Properties of Different Lattice Structures Based on Additive Manufacturing

“…Fabrication of any pore structure is difficult due to its complex geometry, especially when the unit size is very small [22][23][24]. The emergence and development of additive manufacturing technology have made it possible to produce such complex geometric shapes [25][26][27]. However, the fabrication techniques and process parameters for such structures should be carefully selected, as AM technology has limitations in removing the supporting structures and internal powders.…”

Microneedles: One-Plane Bevel-Tipped Fabrication by 3D-Printing Processes

“…Economidou et al, in 2021, fabricated hollow cone-shaped MNs with a base diameter of 1000 µm and a tip diameter of 100 µm [ 7 ]. Rogkas et al, in 2022, presented improvements made with respect to MNs in their microscale dimensions using the additive manufacturing technique [ 10 ]. Drug delivery using MN devices has shown good permeability and efficacy [ 11 ].…”