Hybrid Printing of Liquid Metal

Up to now, conventional 3D printing technology is mainly used to make nonfunctional structural supports due to the use of plastics or polymers and other materials. So its use is relatively limited. Special 3D printing technology can produce metal parts, but most of them are limited to metal materials with melting points up to thousands of degrees. They are generally used for manufacturing aviation equipment, mainly for niche fields. Due to these factors, the existing 3D printing technology is far from large-scale popularization. In order to overcome the shortcomings of traditional 3D printing technology in application and promotion, this chapter introduces the hybrid printing technology based on liquid metal and illustrates the suspended 3D printing method with self-healing hydrogel as support material, the injection 3D printing method with flowing liquid metal that can be poured and molded, and the application potential of liquid metal composite printing technology through the printing and performance research of a lighting system and liquid metal battery. Further, the concept of generalized 3D printing that can directly produce target objects is described, the printing compatibility between different inks (including room temperature liquid metal, nonmetal, and biological materials) is analyzed, and the future development prospect of generalized 3D printing is described.