scholarly journals Design for additive manufacturing - effects of part orientation, printer selection, and infill density on mechanical properties and production cost

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruiqi Chen ◽  
Liseli Baich ◽  
James Lauer ◽  
Debbie G. Senesky ◽  
Guha Manogharan
Keyword(s):  
Mechanical Properties ◽  
Additive Manufacturing ◽  
Production Cost ◽  
Manufacturing Systems ◽  
Cost Savings ◽  
Beam Theory ◽  
Mechanical Stiffness ◽  
Entry Level ◽  
Material Extrusion ◽  
Part Orientation

This original work investigates the influence of infill design, printer selection, and part orientation on the mechanical properties and production cost of parts fabricated using material extrusion additive manufacturing systems. Flexural test specimens are fabricated in both production-grade (Fortus 250mc) and entry-level (MakerBot Replicator 2X) material extrusion systems with varying infill densities (1 mm to 10 mm spacing between rasters). In addition, solid infill specimens are printed in three orientations to establish baseline mechanical stiffness and strength. Finite element simulations and a simplified analytical model based on Euler-Bernoulli beam theory are developed. Results show reasonable agreement between analytical, simulation, and experimental results; 10-20% and 10-40% deviation for production-grade and entry-level specimens specimens, respectively. There is a 40% reduction in stiffness and strength between the solid XY specimen and 1 mm infill specimen. As infill density is further decreased, stiffness and strength asymptotically reduces by 60-70% when compared to solid specimens. This effect is more pronounced in specimens fabricated using entry-level printers, which indicates that printer selection plays a role in printing highly sparse parts. Cost analysis suggests that up to 40% savings can be achieved with highly sparse structures. However, for structural parts, it is recommended that parts be printed with solid infill and with the loading direction aligned in the XY plane to achieve high stiffness, high strength, and reasonable cost. Findings from this study show that there is minimal cost savings but high reduction in mechanical stiffness and strength when sparse infills are used in both production-grade and entry-level printers. Hence, it is recommended that solid infill should be used in all regions of parts that carry significant mechanical stress and sparse infill be used solely to support internal geometries and overhangs.

Curved-layered material extrusion modeling for thin-walled parts by a 5-axis machine

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaojing Feng ◽  
Bin Cui ◽  
Yaxiong Liu ◽  
Lianggang Li ◽  
Xiaojun Shi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mechanical Properties ◽  
Surface Roughness ◽  
Additive Manufacturing ◽  
Layered Material ◽  
Bottom Surface ◽  
Motion Mechanism ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Material Extrusion ◽  
Thin Walled ◽  
Five Axis

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to solve the problems of poor mechanical properties, high surface roughness and waste support materials of thin-walled parts fabricated by flat-layered additive manufacturing process. Design/methodology/approach This paper proposes a curved-layered material extrusion modeling process with a five-axis motion mechanism. This process has advantages of the platform rotating, non-support printing and three-dimensional printing path. First, the authors present a curved-layered algorithm by offsetting the bottom surface into a series of conformal surfaces and a toolpath generation algorithm based on the geodesic distance field in each conformal surface. Second, they introduce a parallel five-axis printing machine consisting of a printing head fixed on a delta-type manipulator and a rotary platform on a spherical parallel machine. Findings Mechanical experiments show the failure force of the five-axis printed samples is 153% higher than that of the three-axis printed samples. Forming experiments show that the surface roughness significantly decreases from 42.09 to 18.31 µm, and in addition, the material consumption reduces by 42.90%. These data indicate the curved-layered algorithm and five-axis motion mechanism in this paper could effectively improve mechanical properties and the surface roughness of thin-walled parts, and realize non-support printing. These methods also have reference value for other additive manufacturing processes. Originality/value Previous researchers mostly focus on printing simple shapes such as arch or “T”-like shape. In contrast, this study sets out to explore the algorithm and benefits of modeling thin-walled parts by a five-axis machine. Several validated models would allow comparability in five-axis printing.

Teaching Creativity As a Method to Overcome Limitations in Design for Additive Manufacturing

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sergei Chekurov
Keyword(s):  
Additive Manufacturing ◽  
Teaching Approach ◽  
Major Influence ◽  
Design For Additive Manufacturing ◽  
Student Assignment ◽  
Entry Level ◽  
Material Extrusion ◽  
Teaching Design ◽  
Manufacturing Machine

Abstract This paper describes the challenges and solutions of modifying a normally contact-reliant Design for Additive Manufacturing teaching approach in view of the COVID-19 outbreak. The approach has been put into practice since 2014 in the form of a student assignment that does not provide a specific functional objective but asks students to invent a unique geometry that demonstrates the capabilities of additive manufacturing and manufacture it with an entry level material extrusion machine. The students are asked to use their imaginations to develop an intricate geometry without first considering technical limitations of additive manufacturing. They are then asked to identify the issues with their designs and solve them, while modifying their original vision as little as possible. The goal of the approach is to teach students to identify the limitations of additive manufacturing and to overcome them with creativity when possible. As physical iterative testing using an additive manufacturing machine is essential to the assignment, the outbreak of COVID-19 had a major influence on it. The paper describes how the assignment was adjusted in the spring of 2020 to meet the challenges of not being able to conduct contact teaching. Although the presented exceptional measures should be avoided as the primary way to educate students, they are shown to facilitate teaching Design for Additive Manufacturing with no access to machines. Notable designs developed by students in 2020 are provided as examples of the generated results.

scholarly journals Research and Implementation of Axial 3D Printing Method for PLA Pipes

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (13) ◽  
pp. 4680
Author(s):  
Haiguang Zhang ◽  
Wenguang Zhong ◽  
Qingxi Hu ◽  
Mohamed Aburaia ◽  
Joamin Gonzalez-Gutierrez ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mechanical Properties ◽  
Additive Manufacturing ◽  
3D Printing ◽  
Layer By Layer ◽  
Standard Material ◽  
Material Extrusion ◽  
G Code ◽  
Realization Process ◽  
Actual Stress ◽  
Printing Method

Additive manufacturing has been applied in many fields, but its layer-by-layer fabrication process leads to a weak inter-layer bond strength of printed parts, so it cannot meet the higher requirements for mechanical properties of the industry. At present, many researchers are studying the printing path planning method to improve the mechanical properties of printed parts. This paper proposes a method to plan the printing path according to the actual stress of pipe parts, and introduces the realization process of an algorithm in detail, and obtains the printing control G-code. Additionally, a 5-axis material extrusion platform was built to realize the printing of polylactic acid pipes with plane and space skeleton curves, respectively, which verified the feasibility and applicability of the method and the correctness of the planning path with standard material extrusion filaments. Finally, the tensile and bending experiments prove that axial printing enhances the mechanical properties of pipe parts.

Experimental investigation of FDM process for improvement of mechanical properties and production cost

2014 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 228-235 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ismail Durgun ◽  
Rukiye Ertan
Keyword(s):  
Mechanical Properties ◽  
Surface Roughness ◽  
Production Cost ◽  
Fused Deposition Modelling ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Fused Deposition ◽  
Close Relationship ◽  
Raster Angle ◽  
Part Orientation ◽  
Selection Of

Purpose – The mechanical properties and surface finish of functional parts are important consideration in rapid prototyping, and the selection of proper parameters is essential to improve manufacturing solutions. The purpose of this paper is to describe how parts manufactured by fused deposition modelling (FDM), with different part orientations and raster angles, were examined experimentally and evaluated to achieve the desired properties of the parts while shortening the manufacturing times due to maintenance costs. Design/methodology/approach – For this purpose, five different raster angles (0°, 30°, 45°, 60° and 90°) for three part orientations (horizontal, vertical and perpendicular) have been manufactured by the FDM method and tested for surface roughness, tensile strength and flexural strength. Also, behaviour of the mechanical properties was clarified with scanning electron microscopy images of fracture surfaces. Findings – The research results suggest that the orientation has a more significant influence than the raster angle on the surface roughness and mechanical behaviour of the resulting fused deposition part. The results indicate that there is close relationship between the surface roughness and the mechanical properties. Originality/value – The results of this paper are useful in defining the most appropriate raster angle and part orientation in minimum production cost for FDM components on the basis of their expected in-service loading.

Preparation and Rheological and Mechanical Properties of Poly(butylene succinate)/Talc Composites for Material Extrusion Additive Manufacturing

2019 ◽  
Vol 304 (7) ◽  
pp. 1900021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yunhong Zhou ◽  
Xinshu Xia ◽  
Xinping Liu ◽  
Baoquan Huang ◽  
Liren Xiao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mechanical Properties ◽  
Additive Manufacturing ◽  
Butylene Succinate ◽  
Material Extrusion

Effective Mechanical Properties of Lattice Material Fabricated by Material Extrusion Additive Manufacturing

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sang-In Park ◽  
David W. Rosen ◽  
Seung-kyum Choi ◽  
Chad E. Duty
Keyword(s):  
Mechanical Properties ◽  
Additive Manufacturing ◽  
Manufacturing Process ◽  
Lattice Structure ◽  
Homogenization Method ◽  
Structural Element ◽  
Material Extrusion ◽  
Layer Deposition ◽  
Lattice Material ◽  
Effective Mechanical Properties

In this paper, a two-step homogenization method is proposed and implemented for evaluating effective mechanical properties of lattice structured material fabricated by the material extrusion additive manufacturing process. In order to consider the characteristics of the additive manufacturing process in estimation procedures, the levels of scale for homogenization are divided into three stages — the levels of layer deposition, structural element, and lattice structure. The method consists of two transformations among stages. In the first step, the transformation between layer deposition and structural element levels is proposed to find the geometrical and material effective properties of structural elements in the lattice structure. In the second step, the method to estimate effective mechanical properties of lattice material is presented, which uses a unit cell and is based on the discretized homogenization method for periodic structure. The method is implemented for cubic lattice structure and compared to experimental results for validation purposes.

Additive manufacturing of shape memory polymers: effects of print orientation and infill percentage on mechanical properties

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 744-751 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jorge Villacres ◽  
David Nobes ◽  
Cagri Ayranci
Keyword(s):  
Mechanical Properties ◽  
Additive Manufacturing ◽  
Shape Memory ◽  
Fused Deposition Modeling ◽  
Shape Memory Polymer ◽  
Longitudinal Axis ◽  
Layer By Layer ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Material Extrusion ◽  
Fused Deposition

Purpose Material extrusion additive manufacturing, also known as fused deposition modeling, is a manufacturing technique in which objects are built by depositing molten materials layer-by-layer through a nozzle. The use and application of this technique has risen dramatically over the past decade. This paper aims to first, report on the production and characterization of a shape memory polymer material filament that was manufactured to print shape memory polymer objects using material extrusion additive manufacturing. Additionally, it aims to investigate and outline the effects of major printing parameters, such as print orientation and infill percentage, on the elastic and mechanical properties of printed shape memory polymer samples. Design/methodology/approach Infill percentage was tested at three levels, 50, 75 and 100 per cent, while print orientation was tested at four different angles with respect to the longitudinal axis of the specimens at 0°, 30°, 60° and 90°. The properties examined were elastic modulus, ultimate tensile strength and maximum strain. Findings Results showed that print angle and infill percentage do have a significant impact on the manufactured test samples. Originality/value Findings can significantly influence the tailored design and manufacturing of smart structures using shape memory polymer and material extrusion additive manufacturing.

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