The scientists from ETH Zurich and MIT have manufactured a kin of architectures which will maximize the rigidity of porous lightweight resources. The idea of developing a stiffer design is something practically impossible. The techniques such as 3D printing and other additive production ones help develop the unimaginable complexity-based internal structure of the materials. The current impracticality may be interesting when it comes to lightweight construction as it allows the manufacturing of materials that have the maximum possible share of interior emptiness but they are altogether very robust. The intelligent designing of the internal structures for higher efficiency is important.
The research group from ETH Zurich and MIT guided by Dirk Mohr have created as well as designed material architectures with equally strong three dimensionalities and extreme stiffness. The Mohr’s structures have a close similarity to the theoretical maximum stiffness material with internal voids. The basic reason for the stiffness obtained in the interiors is owing to the plate-lattices instead of the trusses in the designed materials. The truss concept has been used in the steel bridges, half-timbered houses, and steel towers from a very long time. The ideal lightweight structures of the truss lattices give it a green signal for stiffness but the computer analysis has shown the new family of plate-lattice structures to be three times stiffer. It is not only the structure’s stiffness that reaches the theoretical maximum values but also the strength that does.
According to the ETH researchers, the computer calculation has helped understand the properties of the process before producing it at the micrometer scale from plastic via 3D printing technology. As per Mohr, the applications of the design will be universal like electronics, medicals, automobiles, and more. The research team is currently trying to find a replacement for the expensive 3D printing with additive manufacturing technologies for mass production that to at a low cost with lighter materials made from less raw materials. The Washington State University researchers have, lately, built 3D-printed wearable glucose biosensor for helping millions suffering from diabetes to monitor their glucose levels.
