3D Printed Intelligently Graded Functional Stiffness Foam for Sturdier Multi Stiffness Materials
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Foams are ubiquitous, being used in applications such as padding, insulation, and noise isolation. Bonding different density foams together produces undesired stress concentrations and boundary effects. Creating controlled gradients in foam properties has been a challenge for traditional and AM processes. Here we show how to use a form of material extrusion called Viscous Thread APrinting (VTP) to produce foams with multiple stiffnesses and continuous gradients between different stiffnesses. We do so by varying the path speed during extrusion to control the production of microstructures. We compare the process of producing discrete components and those with gradients, showing that those with gradients have higher strength in plane during tension, have no discontinuities in out of plane stiffness, and are less prone to forming cracks at the boundaries. We demonstrate the process in thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU).