Digital Twin-Enabled Extrusion Control for High-Fidelity Printing of Polymers

Direct ink writing (DIW) has emerged as a powerful technique for functional-structure fabrication. However, its application to materials with heterogeneous or time-dependent rheology remains limited. This study introduces dual-mode electropneumatic extrusion, supported by a real-time digital twin. This platform integrates a motorized pneumatic cylinder with an electropneumatic pressure regulator, enabling continuous blending of pressure and displacement control. System performance is evaluated across five material characteristics: homogeneity, heterogeneity, time-dependent rheology, self-curing ability, and thermoplasticity. The results demonstrate that feedback current control reduces the linewidth variability to ≈2% and settling time to <250 ms, even under four-fold increases in viscosity. Adaptive pressure ramps restore variability to ≤4% throughout material curing, while hybrid velocity–pressure operation maintains variability at ≤4% and a pore geometry error below 4% over 20 layers. These findings establish a robust framework for rheology-adaptive DIW and offer practical guidelines for implementing dual-mode control in high-throughput, multi-nozzle applications.