Dynamic Interface Printing

Abstract

Additive manufacturing is an expanding multidisciplinary field encompassing applications including medical devices, aerospace components, microfabrication strategies, and artificial organs. Among additive manufacturing approaches, light-based printing technologies, including two-photon polymerization, projection micro stereolithography, and volumetric printing, have garnered significant attention due to their speed, resolution and/or potential applications for biofabrication. In this study, we introduce dynamic interface printing (DIP), a new 3D printing approach that leverages an acoustically modulated, constrained air-liquid boundary to rapidly generate cm-scale three-dimensional structures within tens of seconds. Distinct from volumetric approaches, this process eliminates the need for intricate feedback systems, specialized chemistry, or complex optics while maintaining rapid printing speeds. We demonstrate the versatility of this technique across a broad array of materials and intricate geometries, including those that would be impossible to print via conventional layer-by-layer methods. In doing so, we demonstrate the rapid fabrication of complex structures in-situ, overprinting, structural parallelisation, and biofabrication utility. Moreover, we showcase that the formation of surface waves at this boundary enables enhanced mass transport, material flexibility, and permits three-dimensional particle patterning. We therefore anticipate that this approach will be invaluable for applications where high resolution, scalable throughput, and biocompatible printing is required.