Additive Manufacturing Of Low-Density UV-Curable Resins To Produce Lightweight Structures For Automotive Applications

Matthew Pearlson, The Foam Printing Project

Abstract: A key focus of the automotive industry is the push to better fuel economy. One way to address the weight saving goals of the automotive industry is to utilize low-density additive manufacturing technologies (“3D printed foam”). By combining novel internal geometries with UV-curable resin foams, the foam printing project can produce parts up to 75% lighter in weight. This talk is the first to present a method for producing UV-cured foam materials made with a 3D-printer. An overview of the process, economics, and results of tensile and compressive strength tests are presented.