In the past 5 years, oxygen-permeable films have been widely used for continuous additive manufacturing. These films create a polymerization inhibition zone that facilitates continuous printing in the additive mode of fabrication. Typically, oxygen-permeable films made out of Teflon are currently used. These films are expensive and are not commonly available. Hence, this research work investigates the feasibility of using commonly available low-cost oxygen-permeable films made from polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and polyurethane for continuous additive manufacturing. We also characterize the ablation depth range that can be achieved using these films and the potential use for subtractive ablation-based manufacturing as well as hybrid additive/subtractive manufacturing. Results demonstrate that the PDMS films (600 μm thick) can be used for both additive and subtractive modes, whereas spin-coated PDMS thin film (40 μm thick) on glass coverslip and breathe-easy polyurethane film (20 μm thick) laminated on glass coverslip are suitable only for additive mode of fabrication. The latter two films are oxygen impermeable, however, they retain oxygen, which is capable of creating dead zone and thereby facilitates continuous printing. We anticipate that this work will help researchers to choose the appropriate oxygen-permeable film for continuous additive, subtractive, and hybrid additive/subtractive manufacturing of complex three-dimensional structures for a range of applications.

中文翻译：

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用于连续增材、减材和混合增材/减材制造的透氧薄膜


近5年来，透氧薄膜已广泛用于连续增材制造。这些薄膜形成了聚合抑制区，有利于以增材制造模式进行连续印刷。目前通常使用由聚四氟乙烯制成的透氧薄膜。这些薄膜价格昂贵且不常见。因此，这项研究工作探讨了使用常用的由聚二甲基硅氧烷（PDMS）和聚氨酯制成的低成本透氧薄膜进行连续增材制造的可行性。我们还描述了使用这些薄膜可以实现的烧蚀深度范围以及基于减材烧蚀的制造以及混合增材/减材制造的潜在用途。结果表明，PDMS 薄膜（600 μm 厚）可用于加法和减法模式，而玻璃盖玻片上的旋涂 PDMS 薄膜（40 μm 厚）和层压在玻璃上的透气聚氨酯薄膜（20 μm 厚）盖玻片仅适用于增材制造模式。后两种薄膜是不透氧的，但是它们保留了氧气，从而能够产生死区，从而有利于连续印刷。我们预计这项工作将帮助研究人员为一系列应用的复杂三维结构的连续增材、减材和混合增材/减材制造选择合适的透氧薄膜。