Multi-material, multi-Process, planar, and nonplanar additive manufacturing of piezoelectric devices

Nonplanar multi-material additive manufacturing (AM) of piezoelectric devices is an important step for innovation in digital manufacturing. Herein this work, the development of a manufacturing platform based on multi-material multi-process AM that enables fabrication of piezoelectric and conductive electrode materials with complex planar and nonplanar (conformal) structures is reported. Also, the development of conductive and piezoelectric paste-like printing materials, herein called inks, for extrusion-based direct-writing AM processes is presented. The developed inks are highly stretchable (e.g., up to 100% before breaking), easy to process, and less toxic compared to existing solvent evaporation-based inks in the literature. Several piezoelectric energy-harvesting (PEH) devices are fabricated. The innovative inks within a multi-material multi-process 3D printing platform can substantially broaden the design space of multi-material AM and open up new opportunities for the production of application-oriented parts that are more integrable, conformable, scalable, and versatile.