Randall Erb, associate professor and director of the DAPS Lab at Northeastern, uses magnets and a 3D printer to create and maintain control over a ceramic material that can withstand extreme heat. The resulting product can be used in a wide array of applications from circuit boards to hypersonic planes. For context, hypersonic flight (any below 90 km at speeds from Mach 5-10) leads to extremely high heat loads. 

Picture This: Holding a Magnet Over a Pile of Paperclips

Erb says that his complex, ceramic, geometrics structure is a “good material for anything that deals with high heat. It isn’t conductive like metal, so it’s good for something like a circuit board.” However, what he and his team have done can’t be accomplished through conventional manufacturing. During the printing process, he applies a magnetic force that optimally orients particles. Picture it this way — you hold a strong magnet over a pile of paper clips, allowing it to attract and untangle the cluster in orientation with the magnetic field. On a microscopic level, Erb performs this same process. The field he uses in the 3D printing process aligns the particles in the ceramic, making it stronger than if the particles were all jumbled and oriented in different directions.  To print, Erb mixes ceramic powder with a light-responsive resin. Next, he projects light onto the mixture, curing and hardening it. As the material hardens, the printer adds more layers until complete. Erb and his lab were nominated for the 3D Printing Industry Award in 2021. They’ve also had success with industry partners in the past. Winning would bring Erb and Northeastern credibility and notoriety for their research to bring microscale design to 3D printing.

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