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Custom 3d Printing Nozzles for Geometric Customization of Materials Deposition
THE CHALLENGE
Problem with current extrusion-based additive manufacturing lies in its heavy dependence on standard round nozzles, which limit the ability to control the shape of material strands as they are deposited. This restriction forces companies to rely on workarounds such as complex software strategies, fine-tuned printing parameters, or costly...
Published: 10/8/2025
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Inventor(s): Brook Kennedy
Keywords(s):
Category(s): Technology Classifications > Additive Manufacturing
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Real-Time Laser Power Control for L-PBF
THE CHALLENGE
The challenge facing Laser Powder Bed Fusion additive manufacturing lies in consistently producing high-quality metal parts while managing the complexity of the process. Current machines typically operate with fixed parameters, such as constant laser power, which cannot adapt to the changing thermal conditions and varying feature sizes...
Published: 10/8/2025
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Inventor(s): Rongxuan Wang, Benjamin Standfield, Zhenyu Kong, Chaoran Dou
Keywords(s):
Category(s): Technology Classifications > Additive Manufacturing
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Micron-Level Structured Light 3D Scanner Development
THE CHALLENGE
In industries such as additive manufacturing, aerospace, and medical device production urgently need fast and reliable surface measurement tools capable of capturing features at the micron level, yet current commercial 3D scanning systems cannot deliver this performance. Most scanners are limited to about 50 micrometers in resolution,...
Published: 10/8/2025
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Inventor(s): Rongxuan Wang, Zhenyu Kong
Keywords(s):
Category(s): Technology Classifications > Engineering, Technology Classifications > Additive Manufacturing
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Model Predictive Control in Laser 3D Printing
THE CHALLENGE
Laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) manufacturing faces significant challenges due to its traditional reliance on empirically optimized, constant processing parameters that do not adequately address layerâwise variations in thermal history, leading to inconsistent microstructures, porosity, poor surface finishes, and geometric distortions....
Published: 6/23/2025
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Inventor(s): Alexander Riensche, Prahalada Rao, Kevin Cole
Keywords(s):
Category(s): Technology Classifications > Additive Manufacturing, Technology Classifications, Technology Classifications > Engineering
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Multi-Axis Continuous Fiber Extrusion Tool
THE CHALLENGE
Traditional composite processing methods such as wet layup and pultrusion struggle to create small, detailed shapes with properly aligned carbon fibers. While 3D printing with short carbon fibers improves strength slightly, the chopped fibers limit their full potential. Continuous carbon fiber 3D printing works well for simple, flat printing...
Published: 10/8/2025
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Inventor(s): Kieran Beaumont, Joseph Kubalak, Christopher Williams
Keywords(s):
Category(s): Technology Classifications > Additive Manufacturing, Technology Classifications > Engineering, Technology Classifications > Robotics
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Increased Control Over Additive Manufacturing of Functional Emulsions
THE CHALLENGE
Functional emulsions are an emerging material architecture that can be cured into an elastomer composite with embedded liquid phase fillers. Techniques to control local composite microstructures and material composition in emulsions, which ultimately govern material properties and performance of the cured elastomer composite, are lacking.
OUR...
Published: 8/5/2025
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Inventor(s): Michael Bartlett, Ravi Tej Anand Tutika, Gwyneth Schloer, Eric Markvicka, Aaron Haake
Keywords(s):
Category(s): Technology Classifications > Additive Manufacturing, EXPERIMENT--DO NOT USE
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Robotic Aerial Vehicle Fabricator
THE CHALLENGE
Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), or drones, are critical for a wide range of applications from data acquisition to delivery. Due to prioritization of high production volumes, current drone manufacturing methods utilize injection molded parts, require human operator inspection, and are postured to only produce one-size-fits-all drone designs....
Published: 8/5/2025
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Inventor(s): Tadeusz Kosmal, Kieran Beaumont, Eric Link, Dalton Phillips, Conner Pulling, Jimmy Lowe, Christopher Williams, Joseph Kubalak
Keywords(s):
Category(s): Technology Classifications > Additive Manufacturing, Technology Classifications > Robotics
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Thermal Control During Additive Manufacturing
THE CHALLENGE
Additive manufacturing (AM) has emerged as a powerful tool within engineering. Many AM and coating processes rely on thermal input to soften or melt the materials involved in processing. However, this melting or softening typically results in a higher thermal gradient between deposited material and the workpiece, commonly resulting in...
Published: 10/8/2025
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Inventor(s): Robert Griffiths, David Garcia, Hang Yu
Keywords(s):
Category(s): EXPERIMENT--DO NOT USE, Technology Classifications > Additive Manufacturing
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3D Printable Multifunctional Fibers
THE CHALLENGE
3D printing has enabled the customized production of many objects and devices, but that technology currently only creates passive units.
OUR SOLUTION
Researchers at Virginia Tech have developed a coaxial micro-extrusion technique that enables us to take advantage of triboelectric energy generation and custom build sensors to fit...
Published: 8/5/2025
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Inventor(s): Blake Johnson, Yuxin Tong, John Robertson, Xiaoting Jia, Ziang Feng
Keywords(s):
Category(s): Technology Classifications > Engineering, Technology Classifications > Biotechnology, Technology Classifications > Biomedical, Technology Classifications > Energy, Technology Classifications > Additive Manufacturing, Technology Classifications > Electronics, Technology Classifications > Medical Devices
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Personalized Medicine Using Additive Manufacturing
THE CHALLENGE
A major problem posed by the pharmaceutical industry is giving effective dosages while not giving excessive amounts of a particular drug. An estimated 80% of side effects in humans and animals are a direct result of inaccurate dosing because varying weights in patients. Additive manufacturing has emerged as a very promising method to...
Published: 8/5/2025
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Inventor(s): Emily Wilts, Timothy Long, Christopher Williams, Da Ma
Keywords(s):
Category(s): Technology Classifications > Additive Manufacturing, Technology Classifications > Biomedical, Technology Classifications > Chemicals/Materials, Technology Classifications > Pharmacology and Therapeutics
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