A meta material with variable rigidity ready for industrial applications

The Austrian Polymer Competence Center Leoben (PCCL) is a leading centre for cooperative research in plastics technology and polymer sciences. The PCCL helps to create innovative products through the development of new materials with complex properties. One material that was recently developed at the PCCL is a meta material (i.e., an artificial material engineered to have certain properties) with variable and definable stiffness in three dimensions. The new material can be created through additive manufacturing (3D printing) from different raw materials like plastics or metal. The structure developed allows independent, local and gradual stiffness variation over several orders of magnitude creating interesting areas of potential application within the manufacturing sector. For instance, the material could be used in the manufacturing of machines or medical equipment like prosthetic implants.