HEMI Seminar: Eric Clough

Microlattice Structural and Energy Absorbing Materials

Eric Clough, Architected Materials Department, HRL Laboratories

This seminar presents microlattice materials formed by a unique additive manufacturing approach. The method for fabricating these structures utilizes a self-propagating photopolymer waveguide (SPPW) effect to achieve build-times several orders of magnitude less than competing additive manufacturing processes such as stereolithography (e.g. 30 to 60 seconds). The SPPW fabrication approach enables new avenues to scalably realize architected materials with superlative performance for a variety of applications. This seminar will present HRL’s recent advances in microlattices made for two such applications. The first application uses the polymer microlattice as a sacrificial template upon which nanocrystalline aluminum is electroplated to create hollow metal microlattices for ultalight sandwich cores, and the second application uses elastomeric constituent polymer to create compliant, open-celled energy absorbers. Through judicious tuning of architecture and/or composition these microlattice structures can achieve better than state-of-the-art performance in specific strength or volumetric energy absorption, and see potential for future use in applications ranging from space launch vehicles to helmets with improved protection capabilities.

Seminar will be held at 1 PM in Malone Hall, G33/35.