Page 46 - MSAM-2-2

Materials Science in

Additive Manufacturing

ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE
Laser additive manufacturing of microchannel

array structure inspired by lobster eyes: Forming
ability and optical focusing performance

Luhao Yuan, Dongdong Gu*, Kaijie Lin, Xinyu Shi, He Liu, Han Zhang, Xin Liu,
Jianfeng Sun
Jiangsu Provincial Engineering Laboratory for Laser Additive Manufacturing of High-Performance
Metallic Components, College of Materials Science and Technology, Nanjing University of
Aeronautics and Astronautics, Yudao Street 29, Nanjing, 210016, China

Abstract

After millions of years of evolution, nature has evolved materials and structures with
excellent performance and has provided a source of inspiration for designing high-
performance structures. The bionic lobster eye structure (BLES) is a typical example
of imitating the good light-focusing performance of lobster eyes. Here, the BLESs
with different structural parameters were designed and fabricated by laser powder
bed fusion (LPBF). The experimental results demonstrated that the highest relative
density of 99.98% can be obtained at a laser power of 400 W and scanning speed
of 2200 mm/s, and the upper profile in each microchannel formed under this
parameter was regular. All BLESs exhibited a bright central focal facula with a diffuse
background on the focus plate. The light-collecting ability of LPBF-processed BLES
*Corresponding author: was decreased with the increase of the upper width of microchannel (UWM), and
Dongdong Gu samples with a small UWM (1.0 mm and 1.25 mm) had a good light-focusing ability.
(dongdonggu@nuaa.edu.cn)
The light intensity on the analysis surface increased as the analysis surface was away
Citation: Yuan L, Gu D, from the center of BLES (optical axis), which was detrimental to the optical focusing
Lin K, et al., 2023, Laser additive
manufacturing of microchannel performance. The BLES could potentially be applied to satellites to improve the
array structure inspired by lobster efficiency of light collection of the satellite while reducing the probability of being
eyes: Forming ability and optical detected.
focusing performance. Mater Sci
Add Manuf, 2(2): 0361.
https://doi.org/10.36922/msam.0361
Keywords: Additive manufacturing; Laser powder bed fusion; Bionic lobster eye
Received: March 27, 2023 structure; AlSi10Mg; Optical focusing performance
Accepted: May 10, 2023
Published Online: June 22, 2023
Copyright: © 2023 Author(s). 1. Introduction
This is an Open Access article
distributed under the terms of the Natural beauty is an all-pervading presence, reflected not only in the external outline
Creative Commons Attribution and color of creatures but also in the biological structures with various functions ,
[1]
License, permitting distribution,
and reproduction in any medium, which have raised a lot of academic research interests. After drawing lessons from nature,
provided the original work is researchers create novel structures with specific functions [2-4] . For instance, the natural
properly cited. compound eye, such as the eyes of dragonflies, flies, and lobsters, is an imaging organ
Publisher’s Note: AccScience that has many inspiring optical functions. By mimicking the different shapes (usually
Publishing remains neutral with square, hexagon, or irregular) in the compound eyes of dragonflies, researchers created
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional an artificial optical system with a wide field of view, minimal aberration, high-sensitivity
[5]
affiliations. detection, and fast motion tracking . The optical components with a wide field of

Volume 2 Issue 2 (2023) 1 https://doi.org/10.36922/msam.0361