3D printed mycelium-bound bio-based sound absorbing panels

The built environment contributes in a large extend to the global greenhouse gas emissions. With a growing demand for new buildings another view on building products is required. This thesis focusses on creating a biobased sound absorbing panel made from a mycelium bound biomaterial derived from urban waste. The production method for this panel...

Additive Manufacturing of Kirigami Metasurfaces

Kirigami- the Japanese art of paper cutting – is used extensively as a design philosophy for stretchable and morphable structures. An array of cuts on a thin planar sheet creates a structure that can morph into a 3D pattern on applying an in-plane uniaxial load. This type of structure is called a kirigami metasurface. A subset of this type of...

Design of a Non-Assembly Articulating Neuroendoscopic Forceps

Minimally invasive surgery has some major benefits over traditional open surgery for the patient, but makes surgery more complex for the surgeon. Articulating instruments can regain some of the manoeuvrability that is lost by using a small incision. However, in endoscopic neurosurgery such articulating devices do currently not exist, due to...

Modularity in Lattice structures for Circular Product Design

The principles of repair and maintenance, reuse, and repurposing of products in a circular economy aim at further minimizing the environmental impact during the use of products before being processed for recycling. However, studies on lattice structures in various fields focus on mechanical characteristics, design, and manufacturing methods....

Multi-material 3D inkjet printing for functional structures: using UV sintering and photopolymerisation

Multi­-material 3D inkjet printing has great potential for rapid prototyping and manufacturing of functional mesoscale structures when novel inks are combined into a fully integrated AM-process. This process can be faster and cheaper than conventional methods to produce functional structures. Research is conducted on a large range of potentially...

The LVATE brace as a tool to delay total knee replacement surgery for patients with knee arthritis

During the course of this thesis, the design of a knee brace that improves the quality of life for people with arthritis in the knee, is being researched. The knee joint is covered with articular cartilage which protects the bones from being damaged. Arthritis of the knee is a pathology where this cartilage is damaged potentially even to the...

3D Printed Hydraulic Actuation: Design and Evaluation of a 3D Printed Hydraulic Actuation System

Objective: The objective of this study was to develop and evaluate a 3D printed hydraulic actuation system, applied in a multi-articulate upper limp prosthesis. The prosthesis was designed to produce sufficient pinch force to be competitive with comparable devices (30 N), and weigh less than a human hand (<0.43 kg). The actuator should...

Application of mechanical metamaterials in a parametric, 3D printed ankle foot orthosis

During this project the possibilities of enriching the functionality of an Ankle Foot Orthosis (AFO) by implementing mechanical metamaterials are researched. The project is executed for Buchrnhornen, a company based in Eindhoven which has over 70 years of experience in manufacturing orthopaedic shoes and orthosis in a traditional way. Mechanical...

Manufacturing for customisation: System for FDM mass customisation based on mono-material, transformable interior components using recycled PET

The following report is an explanation to the process of identifying a relevant thesis topic, the literature research, design methodology and validation of the design task at hand. The literature research expands on the construction industry, PET as a single use waste material, Additive manufacturing, Fused Deposition modeling and the design of...

Towards a Circular Economy: Exploring the applications of 3D printing with mussel shell waste

Previous research proved the potential of using mussel shell waste as additive manufacturing (AM) material. In this thesis, mussel shell powder was combined with sodium alginate, since it allows reversible cross-linking. Due to reversible cross-linking, this water-soluble and recyclable material can temporarily be made water-resistant, so it can...

Fatigue Behaviour of functionally graded Inconel 718 manufactured by selective laser melting

Functionally graded materials (FGMs) represent a new class of materials that consist of graded compositional and microstructural patterns allowing to tailor properties. Additive manufacturing (AM) or more commonly known as 3D-printing offers a paradigm shift in FGMs and engineering design due to its ability to produce components with complex...

Implementing 3D printers to produce airworthy aircraft cabin parts

The research phase starts with an extensive literature study. To this end, a research question was drawn up, which reads as follows: What possibilities does Additive Manufacturing (AM) offer in airworthy aircraft part production and in what way can suitable parts be selected and redesigned? The most interesting findings from this literature...

The effect of nodal topology on cellular solid mechanics: A preliminary diagnostic experimental investigation

Additive manufacturing allows material structuring, supporting the fabrication of multiple-level structures or metamaterials. Through the lens of classical stress reduction, nature’s cellular solid structures feature stress-homogenizing nodal topologies. Avian long bones are an example. Research into the mechanics of open cell cellular solids...

Optimising 3D Printed Concrete Structures: Concrete additive manufacturing and topology optimisation

Additive manufacturing and 3D printing are rapidly developing digital fabrication techniques. After the first steps in printing of metals and plastics have been made, research from various groups around the world is now also focusing on printing in concrete and moving to larger scales. Using this technique it will be possible to create...

Shining light on mussel shells: The development of a 3D printed and recyclable material

This master thesis is the result of a graduation project for the Master Integrated Product Design at the TU Delft. The project was formulated as a continuation on research done by Mariet Sauerwein and Zjenja Doubrovski, in which they proved the potential of mussel shells as a material for material extrusion 3D printing. This with the aim of...

Fracture Toughness of Aerospace Structures: On the Use of Redundant Lattice Structures

Both experimental and numerical studies have shown that the crack-bridging is one of the most significant mechanism contributing to the fracture toughness of natural materials like nacre and bone. This study aims to explore if additive manufactured lattice structures can be used to bridge fatigue cracks as well, thereby improving the fracture...

Automated Embedding of Electronic Components in 3D Printed Products

Embedables is a new concept which invites every designer to start creating simple electronic products, without having to worry about how the electronic part of the product is going to come to life. While working on the CAD model of your product, choose the component you wish to use from the component library and simply drag and drop it at the...