Three-dimensional lattices have applications across a range of fields including structural lightweighting, impact absorption and biomedicine. In this work, lattices based on triply periodic minimal surfaces were produced by polymer additive manufacturing and examined with a combination of experimental and computational methods. This investigation elucidates their deformation mechanisms and provides numerical parameters crucial in establishing relationships between their geometries and mechanical performance. Three types of lattice were examined, with one, known as the primitive lattice, being found to have a relative elastic modulus over twice as large as those of the other two. The deformation process of the primitive lattice was also considerably different from those of the other two, exhibiting strut stretching and buckling, while the gyroid and diamond lattices deformed in a bending dominated manner. Finite element predictions of the stress distributions in the lattices under compressive loading agreed with experimental observations. These results can be used to create better informed lattice designs for a range of mechanical and biomedical applications

The authors gratefully acknowledge funding from the Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science (ICTAS) at Virginia Tech for postdoctoral associate support of one of the authors (Olga Ivanova).

The binder jetting additive manufacturing (AM) process provides an economical and scalable means of fabricating complex parts from a wide variety of materials. While it is often used to fabricate metal parts, it is typically challenging to fabricate full density parts without large degree of sintering shrinkage. This can be attributed to the inherently low green density and the constraint on powder particle size imposed by challenges in recoating fine powders. To address this issue, the authors explored the use of bimodal powder mixtures in the context of binder jetting of copper. A variety of bimodal powder mixtures of various particle diameters and mixing ratios were printed and sintered to study the impact of bimodal mixtures on the parts' density and shrinkage. It was discovered that, compared to parts printed with monosized fine powders, the use of bimodal powder mixtures improves the powder's packing density (8.2%) and flowability (10.5%), and increases the sintered density (4.0%) while also reducing the sintering shrinkage (6.4%).