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Ultra‐Light and Scalable Composite Lattice Materials
Author(s) -
Gregg Christine E.,
Kim Joseph H.,
Cheung Kenneth C.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
advanced engineering materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.938
H-Index - 114
eISSN - 1527-2648
pISSN - 1438-1656
DOI - 10.1002/adem.201800213
Subject(s) - materials science , polyetherimide , composite material , stiffness , composite number , polymer , lattice (music) , specific strength , physics , acoustics
Architected lattice materials are some of the stiffest and strongest materials at ultra‐light density (<10 mg cm −3 ), but scalable manufacturing with high‐performance constituent materials remains a challenge that limits their widespread adoption in load‐bearing applications. We show mesoscale, ultra‐light (5.8 mg cm −3 ) fiber‐reinforced polymer composite lattice structures that are reversibly assembled from building blocks manufactured with a best‐practice high‐precision, high‐repeatability, and high‐throughput process: injection molding. Chopped glass fiber‐reinforced polymer (polyetherimide) lattice materials produced with this method display absolute stiffness (8.41 MPa) and strength (19 kPa) typically associated with metallic hollow strut microlattices at similar mass density. Additional benefits such as strain recovery, discrete damage repair with recovery of original stiffness and strength, and ease of modeling are demonstrated.