Advances in Real Time Stress Imaging of Photopolymer Lattice Structures

The bulk mechanical properties of UV cured materials for additive manufacturing applications are characterized by metrics such as tensile, flexural, and compressive strength. Such properties are strongly influenced by UV dose, wavelength, temperature, oxygen, and other variables during the printing and post-processing steps. For lattice structures, there are additional parameters which affect the final part density and localized mechanical properties.

The interplay between the process parameters and the lattice design can lead to a non-uniform distribution of stresses over the dimensions of the part geometry, ultimately resulting in inconsistent end-use performance. Results from the application of visualization, analysis, modeling, and optimization tools to photopolymer lattices will be presented.