Additive Manufacturing

Additive Manufacturing

College: VCEA

Additive manufacturing (AM) or 3D Printing is a digital manufacturing platform where functional parts or prototypes are produced directly from a computer aided design (CAD) file. At present, AM technology is used across all industrial sectors – from defense critical parts to design of toys. Investigators are using AM for bone tissue engineering with ceramic scaffolds, the design of porous metals for load-bearing implants, designing alloys and ceramic coatings for load-bearing implants, and multi-material additive manufacturing. WSU has extensive research capabilities for metallic materials (both laser powder bed and directed energy deposition-based), ceramic materials (binder jetting) and several lower cost printers for polymeric parts. VCEA/MME also has an aerosol jet-based AM printer for development of fine structures on a scale on the order of microns. Our researchers’ work impacts many different areas, from exploring new manufacturing techniques to create sensors, antennas, and energy harvesting devices and understanding the sintering behavior of metal and ceramic nanoparticles to fabricating scaffolds to grow artificial articular cartilage. WSU researchers have gained international prominence in this area over the past two decades, as the field has been developing, and are recognized as leaders in the field. This research is increasingly complemented by AM research into soft materials for electronics, soft bio-materials, pharmaceuticals, asphalt, and others. As the largest mechanical engineering program in the Pacific Northwest, our goal is to further enhance WSU’s footprint in the US domestic landscape in manufacturing and galvanize cross-disciplinary research and educational programs to help drive manufacturing innovation in the region and nation.