Fabrication and moulding of cellular materials by rapid prototyping J. Stampfl*, H. Fouad and S. Seidler Institute of Materials Science and Testing, Vienna University of Technology, Austria E-mail: jstampfl@pop.tuwien.ac.at *Corresponding author R. Liska and F. Schwager Institute of Applied Synthetic Chemistry, Vienna University of Technology, Austria A. Woesz and P. Fratzl Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, 14424 Potsdam, Germany Abstract: Many biological materials (e.g. wood, cork, bone, . . .) are based on cellular designs, since cellular architectures offer the possibility to optimise the properties (stiffness, density, strength, . . .) of a structure according to the environmental conditions the structure is exposed to. By using Rapid Prototyping it is possible to fabricate cellular materials on a similar size scale as in natural material-structures. By using appropriate moulding techniques, these structures can be fabricated out of a wide variety of materials (polymers, ceramics, composites). In this work, several RP techniques are investigated regarding their suitability for the fabrication of cellular solids. The main focus is on using direct light projection (stereolithography) in combination with gelcasting as moulding technique. Besides using commercial light-sensitive resins, a class of newly developed water-soluble resins has been evaluated regarding its usability as sacrificial mould material. Keywords: cellular materials; ceramics; moulding; rapid prototyping. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Stampfl, J., Fouad, H., Seidler, S., Liska, R., Schwager, F., Woesz, A. and Fratzl, P. (2004) `Fabrication and moulding of cellular materials by rapid prototyping', Int. J. Materials and Product Technology, Vol. 21, No. 4, pp.285±296. Biographical notes: JuÈrgen Stampfl obtained his MSc in applied physics (Graz University of Technology) and his PhD in materials science (University of Mining and Metallurgy in Leoben). After stays at the Rapid Prototyping Lab (Stanford University) and the Austrian Research Centers (Seibersdorf) he came to the Vienna University of Technology, where he is developing new materials for Rapid Prototyping processes. Hassan Fouad studied mechanical engineering at Helwan University (Egypt). He obtained his BSc in 1990 and his MSc in 1996. After finishing his PhD studies (2000) in the field of biomedical polymers at the Int. J. Materials and Product Technology, Vol. 21, No. 4, 2004 285 Copyright # 2004 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.