65 -- Partnership Opportunities for Development and Commercialization of Robocasting Freeform Fabrication Technologies

Free-Forming Objects with Low-Binder Slurry (US Patent 6,027,326)Method for Freeforming Objects with Low-Binder Slurry (US Patent 6,401,795) Method For Making a Bio-Compatible Scaffold (US Patent 6,993,406) Technology Transfer Opportunity Sandia National Laboratories (Albuquerque, New Mexico) has developed patented processes for fabricating products from fine powders such as, but not limited to, ceramic parts, particulate filters, and synthetic bone grafts. These processes can be used to rapidly produce prototypes or manufacture parts in large quantities. A slurry of the material containing between 0.5 and 10 percent binder is deposited on a substrate to fabricate parts directly from fine particle powders without the use of molds. The solid freeform fabrication technique for fine particles uses computer controlled layer-wise extrusion of colloidal slurries. Particle sizes are typically 0.5 to 5 µm, and the slurry solids content ranges between 50 and 60 volume percent solids, depending on the particle size distribution and morphology. The liquid carrier is usually water. The rheology of the slurry mixture is modified with minor additions of dispersants and organic binders to form pastes with a plastic consistency suitable for extrusion. Orifice sizes range between 200 and 2000 µm, and parts may be built at rates on the order of 1 cm3 per minute. Materials demonstrated include Al2O3, ZrO2, Si3N4, lead zirconate titanate (PZT), W, and Ag. Since the process is essentially binderless (less than 1% organics) parts can be dried, and completely sintered into dense, strong parts in less than 24 hours. This method has been applied to forming a three-dimensional, biocompatible, porous scaffold structure using a solid freeform fabrication technique (referred to herein as robocasting) that can be used as a medical implant into a living organism, such as a human or other mammal using materials such as hydroxyapatite. Imaging technology and analysis is first used to determine the three-dimensional design required for the medical implant, such as a bone implant or graft, fashioned as a three-dimensional, biocompatible scaffold structure. The robocasting technique is used to either directly produce the three-dimensional, porous scaffold structure or to produce an over-sized three-dimensional, porous scaffold lattice which can be machined to produce the designed three-dimensional, porous scaffold structure for implantation Sandia is making these technologies available to companies interested in partnering with Sandia to develop near term and/or future applications via licensing, including up to exclusive field of use licenses, or cooperative development agreements. For further information, please respond by email or fax to Glenn Baird no later than June 30, 2006, at: Sandia National Laboratories, MS 0114, P. O. Box 5800, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87185-0114, [email protected] or Fax: (505) 844-8011. Please indicate the date, number and title of this FBO notice and the specific interest your company has developing and commercializing these technologies.