3D Printed " Perfect Particles"

Executive Summary

2 and 3.

publication in Q1 2019. This report summarises the progress to date and the remaining work for years

of this work is included in this report, and the first “proof of principle” paper will be ready for

out for the first time which showed the layer by layer detail of the 3D printing process. A description

something which had not been previously observed. X-ray tomography of the agglomerate was carried

agglomerate bonds to determine the optimum bond material to prevent individual particle breakage,

more detail. Soft, rigid and a hybrid mixture of both soft and rigid materials were used for the

orientation, individual particles and observe the breakage behaviour with much more accuracy and in

agglomerates in colour. By dividing the agglomerate into coloured sections, it will be possible to track

of strength behaviour at different strain rates. A Stratasys Object 500 Connex 3 was used to print the

identical spherical agglomerates 3D printed in colour were carried out to investigate the distribution

ideas and implement them broadly. In year one of this project, quasi-static compression tests of

work from this project would enable the particle technology worldwide community to take up the

disintegration and powder flow and segregation using the newly developed approach. The published

The new IFPRI project contains three sub projects which focus on agglomerate breakage, agglomerate

successfully conducted and the results were highly reproducible.

structure. For the first time, experimental tests on “perfect” particles with tuneable properties were

and the breakage behaviour was compared with a DEM simulation of an agglomerate with an identical

techniques. In the previous IFPRI project, identical copies of agglomerates were designed and printed

orientations. To date, this has not been possible via experimental agglomeration production

under the same condition/orientation and then repeated for various other conditions and

3D printing technology allows mass fabrication of identical agglomerates that can be tested repeatedly

from a ‘single’ individual agglomerate can never be replicated.

possibility of reproducing the data under the same conditions. Therefore, experimental data produced

destructive nature of the experimental tests i.e. breakage, dissolution etc., which would eliminate the

inability to capture the true complexity of the agglomerate structures in simulations and 2) the

actual experimental measurements. The two key drawbacks of the current approach are 1) the

entered into a computer for imprecise estimates of the model simulations, then compared against the

measure the relevant properties of existing non-identical particles. These parameters are then

due to lack of suitable test particles. To date, the cumbersome approach has been to individually

Accurate and systematic validation of particle systems with a simulated model has not been possible