Innovative 3D printing inspired by lobster

Engineers from the Viterbi School of engineering at the University of Southern California (USC) are using lobster inspired 3D printed armor to prevent sports injuries. This lobster like printed armor may be very effective in preventing chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Both lobster and skinned shrimp have shells based on chitosan. The structural fibers of these shells are spirally aligned, and these spirals are constantly rotating. This fiber alignment makes it difficult for small cracks to expand into larger cracks, making it difficult for lobsters to decompose.

Inspired by this, researchers found that lobster shell is an excellent model for protective body armor. It is reported that the 3D printed body armor based on the complex spiral fiber alignment in the lobster shell may prevent serious injuries, such as chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), which is caused by repeated blows to the head in football, boxing and other sports.

In order to make 3D printed armor prototypes, USC researchers need more than one existing 3D printer. Their “electrically assisted 3D printing process” may be the first additive process that uses an electric field to change materials, which aligns material layers in a physical elastic manner similar to lobster shells.

The electrically powered armor is made of plastic and carbon nanotubes. After printing, the researchers compared it with a similar but non electrified model. The results show that this more innovative design has excellent effect.

“Carbon nanotube is a kind of microfiber, so basically when you try to pull it, there are many fibers inside, which play a reinforcing role, and the strength is more than 1000 times that of plastic. If we add nanofibers to plastic, the strength can be increased by four times. If we add nanofibers, and then align these nanofibers with an electric field of 1000 volts, the strength will be increased by eight times,” the researchers explained.

Now, researchers plan to turn this lobster inspired innovation into a more effective device to prevent sports injuries. In particular, it will involve the manufacture of larger equipment, and at the same time, it will also try to make biocompatible materials, such as hydrogels. Finally, by 3D scanning athletes’ body parts, researchers believe that they can make customized 3D printed protective equipment.

In addition to the enhanced structure, researchers believe that this innovative 3D printing and manufacturing capability brings great possibilities for aerospace, mechanical and tissue engineering applications.