Digital glass forming

Abstract: Silicate glasses have unique properties including high transparency, low temperature sensitivity, and high chemical/electrical resistance. Additive manufacturing provides the potential to create parts with complicated geometries over low production volumes as well as opening new possibilities for diverse applications ranging from optics to integrated lab-on-a chip devices. This presentation describes ongoing work printing optically transparent glass using a new laser-heated, filament-fed process. A CO2 or CO laser is used to locally melt continuously fed, small-diameter glass rods or optical fiber. 3D shapes are constructed by moving a 4-axis CNC stage relative to the intersection of the filament and laser beam. The molten glass is controllably deformed by loading from the substrate and filament as well as surface tension. This allows the deposition of fully dense smooth geometries as well as free-standing structures. The physics of the process will be discussed along with the presentation of low-order scaling models predicting the performance.

Bio: Edward Kinzel received his Ph.D. in ME from Purdue in 2010. His graduate work was focused on laser-based micro/nano fabrication including Selective Laser Sintering of electronics as well as near-field direct-write nanolithography. He was a postdoc in the Infrared Systems Laboratory (UCF/UNCC) focusing on the design/application of IR antennas and their observation with NSOM. From 2012-2019 he was an Assistant Professor at Missouri University of Science and Technology. In 2019, he joined the faculty of the AME department at Notre Dame. His current research includes practical nanofabrication of metasurfaces, printing glass, and applying IR/optical antennas as sensing elements.

Additional Information:

For Zoom information and password, please contact Lisa Spicer at lms8@psu.edu