By Nita Vaidya-Zannino August 30, 2022 Additive Manufacturing and Testing for Different Metamaterial Architectures Karathanasopoulos and Al-Ketan were looking for additive manufacturing solutions to test six different unit-cell metamaterial architectures. The mechanical properties of the architectures were tested using both shear and uniaxial compression tests. Different Unit-Cell Metamaterial Architectures Considered Using Boston Micro Fabrication’s microArch S240, they were able to fabricate metamaterial architectures at scales requiring features sized in the order of tenths of µm and overall specimen lengths in the order of mm. After trying multiple printers, they found that the S240 was the 3D printer that could fabricate the specimens with the highest accuracy possible at the required scales. The printed parts included diagonal strut elements with diameters in the order of 50µm. Experimental Performance The 3D printed samples demonstrated very good reproducibility as of the robustness of the system for the investigated metamaterial architectures at the specified scales. The dimensions of the printed samples were within the range of the dimensions observed in native tissues. 3D Printed Tissue and Ligament Metamaterial Architecture Metamaterial designs that allow for substantial normal stiffness along the primal tissue loading direction, upon a low shear resistance and Poisson’s ratio values well above unity have been identified for moderate relative density values, a combination of material attributes that is highly desirable in restoration praxis. Advanced architected materials that are up to 18 times stiffer when normally loaded rather than sheared have been identified, well-beyond the limits of isotropic, common engineering materials that cannot exceed normal to shear loading ratios of 3. Categories join our List Get all of our latest updates by signing up for our Newsletter.