Flow Casting Soft Shells with Geometrical Complexity and Multifunctionality

Fan, Dongliang1,2; Liao, Yuxuan1,2; Wu, Wenyu3; Zhang, Ping4; Yang, Xin1,2; Zhu, Renjie1,2; Wang, Yifei4; Yang, Canhui4; Wang, Hongqiang1,2,5

2023

10.1002/admt.202201640

Advanced Materials Technologies   Impact Factor & Quartile

2365-709X

Soft shells are ubiquitous in soft devices, e.g., soft robots, wearable sensors, and soft medial replicas. However, previous widely accepted methods, such as mold casting, dip coating, and additive manufacturing, are limited to thick shells due to the mold assembly and the large friction during demolding, long processing time for mold dissolution, and poor scalability, respectively. Here, a facile, robust, and scalable manufacturing technique, named flow casting, to create soft shells with complex geometries and multifunctionalities is proposed. The method involves a flow-governed layer casting process and a peel-dominated demolding process. A one-dimensional soft shell is first made with controllable thicknesses (100-400 mu m) and fabricated various soft shells of intricate geometries, including three-branched, circular-shaped, and exquisite microstructures such as papillae and microgrooves on curved surfaces, with the resolution of feature sizes on the order of 100 mu m. Furthermore, the versatility of this method is demonstrated with a 3D vascular phantom model for a magnetic robot transporting, microstructured cubic sleeves for enhancing the grasping ability of rigid grippers, and a stretchable optical waveguide capable of color changing by external mechanical stimuli.

soft devices soft shell fabrication soft vascular replicas soft waveguides

SCI

English

First ; Corresponding

Science, Technology, and Innovation Commission of Shenzhen Municipality[ZDSYS20210623092005017] ; National Natural Science Foundation of China[52275021] ; National Key R&D Program of China[2022YFB4701200] ; Natural Science Foundation of Liaoning Province of China (State Key Laboratory of Robotics)[2021-KF-22-11] ; Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Guangzhou)[K19313901] ; Stable Support Plan Program of Shenzhen Natural Science Fund Grant[K21326303]

Materials Science

Materials Science, Multidisciplinary

WOS:000921175100001

WILEY

Web of Science

1.Southern Univ Sci & Technol, Dept Mech & Energy Engn, Shenzhen Key Lab Biomimet Robot & Intelligent Syst, Shenzhen 518055, Guangdong, Peoples R China
2.Southern Univ Sci & Technol, Dept Mech & Energy Engn, Guangdong Prov Key Lab Human Augmentat & Rehabil R, Shenzhen 518055, Guangdong, Peoples R China
3.Southern Univ Sci & Technol, Sch Syst Design & Intelligent Mfg, Shenzhen 518055, Guangdong, Peoples R China
4.Southern Univ Sci & Technol, Dept Mech & Aerosp Engn, Shenzhen Key Lab Soft Mech & Smart Mfg, Shenzhen 518055, Guangdong, Peoples R China
5.Southern Marine Sci & Engn Guangdong Lab Guangzhou, Guangzhou 510000, Peoples R China

Fan, Dongliang,Liao, Yuxuan,Wu, Wenyu,et al. Flow Casting Soft Shells with Geometrical Complexity and Multifunctionality[J]. Advanced Materials Technologies,2023.

Fan, Dongliang.,Liao, Yuxuan.,Wu, Wenyu.,Zhang, Ping.,Yang, Xin.,...&Wang, Hongqiang.(2023).Flow Casting Soft Shells with Geometrical Complexity and Multifunctionality.Advanced Materials Technologies.

Fan, Dongliang,et al."Flow Casting Soft Shells with Geometrical Complexity and Multifunctionality".Advanced Materials Technologies (2023).