ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING AND VULCANIZATION OF CARBON BLACK–FILLED NATURAL RUBBER–BASED COMPONENTS

Author(s):  
Sebastian Leineweber ◽  
Lion Sundermann ◽  
Lars Bindszus ◽  
Ludger Overmeyer ◽  
Benjamin Klie ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Additive manufacturing of thermoplastics or metals is a well-approved sustainable process for obtaining rapidly precise and individual technical components. Except for crosslinked silicone rubber or thermoplastic elastomers, there is no method of additive manufacturing of elastomers. Based on the development of the additive manufacturing of elastomers (AME) process, the material group of rubber-based cured elastomers may gain first access to the process field of three-dimensional (3D) printing. Printing and crosslinking of rubber is separated into two steps. In the first step, printing is realized by extrusion of the rubber by using a twin-screw extruder, which works according to the derived fused-filament-fabrication principle. In the second step, the component is vulcanized in a high-pressure hot-air autoclave. Because of the plastic flow behavior of non–crosslinked rubber materials, a thermoplastic shell is probably needed to maintain the geometry and position of the additively manufactured rubber. In this way, one layer of thermoplastic and one layer of rubber are printed alternatingly until the component is finished. Afterward, the manufactured binary component is placed in an autoclave to obtain the elastomer after vulcanization under a hot-air and high-pressure atmosphere. Then, the thermoplastic shell is removed from the elastomer and can subsequently be recycled. As compared with conventional thermoplastics, the high viscosity of rubber during processing and its instable shape after extrusion are challenging factors in the development of the AME. This contribution will show a modified 3D printer; explain the printing process from the designed component, via shell generation, to the vulcanized component; and show first printed components.

2018 ◽  
Vol 140 (7) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mazher Iqbal Mohammed ◽  
Ian Gibson

Highly organized, porous architectures leverage the true potential of additive manufacturing (AM) as they can simply not be manufactured by any other means. However, their mainstream usage is being hindered by the traditional methodologies of design which are heavily mathematically orientated and do not allow ease of controlling geometrical attributes. In this study, we aim to address these limitations through a more design-driven approach and demonstrate how complex mathematical surfaces, such as triply periodic structures, can be used to generate unit cells and be applied to design scaffold structures in both regular and irregular volumes in addition to hybrid formats. We examine the conversion of several triply periodic mathematical surfaces into unit cell structures and use these to design scaffolds, which are subsequently manufactured using fused filament fabrication (FFF) additive manufacturing. We present techniques to convert these functions from a two-dimensional surface to three-dimensional (3D) unit cell, fine tune the porosity and surface area, and examine the nuances behind conversion into a scaffold structure suitable for 3D printing. It was found that there are constraints in the final size of unit cell that can be suitably translated through a wider structure while still allowing for repeatable printing, which ultimately restricts the attainable porosities and smallest printed feature size. We found this limit to be approximately three times the stated precision of the 3D printer used this study. Ultimately, this work provides guidance to designers/engineers creating porous structures, and findings could be useful in applications such as tissue engineering and product light-weighting.


Author(s):  
J. Mark Meacham ◽  
Amanda O’Rourke ◽  
Yong Yang ◽  
Andrei G. Fedorov ◽  
F. Levent Degertekin ◽  
...  

The recent application of inkjet printing to fabrication of three-dimensional, multilayer and multimaterial parts has tested the limits of conventional printing-based additive manufacturing techniques. The novel method presented here, termed as additive manufacturing via microarray deposition (AMMD), expands the allowable range of physical properties of printed fluids to include important, high-viscosity production materials (e.g., polyurethane resins). AMMD relies on a piezoelectrically driven ultrasonic print-head that generates continuous streams of droplets from 45 μm orifices while operating in the 0.5–3.0 MHz frequency range. The device is composed of a bulk ceramic piezoelectric transducer for ultrasound generation, a reservoir for the material to be printed, and a silicon micromachined array of liquid horn structures, which make up the ejection nozzles. Unique to this new printing technique are the high frequency of operation, use of fluid cavity resonances to assist ejection, and acoustic wave focusing to generate the pressure gradient required to form and eject droplets. We present the initial characterization of a micromachined print-head for deposition of fluids that cannot be used with conventional printing-based rapid prototyping techniques. Glycerol-water mixtures with a range of properties (surface tensions of ∼58–73 mN/m and viscosities of 0.7–380 mN s/m2) were used as representative printing fluids for most investigations. Sustained ejection was observed in all cases. In addition, successful ejection of a urethane-based photopolymer resin (surface tension of ∼25–30 mN/m and viscosity of 900–3000 mN s/m2) was achieved in short duration bursts. Peaks in the ejection quality were found to correspond to predicted device resonances. Based on these results, we have demonstrated the printing of fluids that fall well outside of the accepted range for the previously introduced printing indicator. The micromachined ultrasonic print-head achieves sustained printing of fluids up to 380 mN s/m2, far above the typical printable range.


Author(s):  
Xiaopeng Li ◽  
Fakun Zhuang ◽  
Rui Zhou ◽  
Yian Wang ◽  
Libo Wang ◽  
...  

Three-dimensional large eddy simulations of high-pressure jets at the same nozzle pressure ratio of 5.60 but issuing from different nozzles are conducted. Four different nozzle geometries, i.e., the circular, elliptic, square, and rectangular nozzles, are used to investigate the effect of the nozzle geometry on the near-field jet flow behavior. A high-resolution, hexahedral, and block-structured grid containing about 31.8 million computational cells is applied. The compressible flow solver, astroFoam, which is developed based on the OpenFOAM C++ library, is used to perform the simulations. The time-averaged near-field shock structures and the mean axial density are compared with the experiment data to validate the fidelity of the LES results, and the reasonable agreement is observed. The results indicate that the remarkable differences exist in the near-field flow structures of the jets. In particular, the circular and square jets correspond to a three-dimensional helical instability mode, while the elliptic and rectangular jets have a two-dimensional lateral instability in their minor axis planes. A subsonic flow zone exists after the Mach disk in the circular and square jets, but is lacking in the elliptic and rectangular jets. The intercepting shocks in the circular jet originate near the nozzle exit, and appear to be circular in cross-section. The intercepting shocks in the square jet originate at the four corners of the nozzle exit at first, and then are observed along the major axis plane some distance downstream of the nozzle exit. However, the formation of the intercepting shock is observed in the major axis planes but is lacking in the minor axis planes for the elliptic and rectangular jets. In addition, the real mass flow rates and discharge coefficients for different jets are computed based on the LES modeling, and their differences are explored.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuan Yao ◽  
Cheng Ding ◽  
Mohamed Aburaia ◽  
Maximilian Lackner ◽  
Lanlan He

Abstract The Fused Filament Fabrication process is the most used additive manufacturing process due to its simplicity and low operating costs. In this process, a thermoplastic filament is led through an extruder, melted, and applied to a building platform by the axial movements of an automated Cartesian system in such a way that a three-dimensional object is created layer by layer. Compared to other additive manufacturing technologies, the components produced have mechanical limitations and are often not suitable for functional applications. To reduce the anisotropy of mechanical strength in fused filament fabrication (FFF), this paper proposes a 3D weaving deposit path planning method that utilizes a 5-layer repetitive structure to achieve interlocking and embedding between neighbor slicing planes to improve the mechanical linkage within the layers. The developed algorithm extends the weaving path as an infill pattern to fill different structures and makes this process feasible on a standard three-axis 3D printer. Compared with 3D weaving printed parts by layer-to-layer deposit, the anisotropy of mechanical properties inside layers is significantly reduced to 10.21% and 0.98%.


2018 ◽  
Vol 140 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hossein Mokhtarian ◽  
Eric Coatanéa ◽  
Henri Paris ◽  
Mouhamadou Mansour Mbow ◽  
Franck Pourroy ◽  
...  

Modeling and simulation for additive manufacturing (AM) is commonly used in industry. Nevertheless, a central issue remaining is the integration of different models focusing on different objectives and targeting different levels of details. The objective of this work is to increase the prediction capability of characteristics and performances of additively manufactured parts and to co-design parts and processes. The paper contributes to this field of research by integrating part's performance model and additive technology process model into a single early integrated model. The paper uses the dimensional analysis conceptual modeling (DACM) framework in an AM perspective to generate causal graphs integrating the AM equipment and the part to be printed. DACM offers the possibility of integrating existing knowledge in the model. The framework supported by a computer tool produces a set of governing equations representing the relationships among the influencing variables of the integrated model. The systematic identification of the weaknesses and contradictions in the system and qualitative simulation of the system are some of the potential uses of the model. Ultimately, it is a way to create better designs of machines and parts, to control and qualify the manufacturing process, and to control three-dimensional (3D) printing processes. The DACM framework is tested on two cases of a 3D printer using the fused filament fabrication (FFF) powder bed fusion. The analysis, applied to the global system formed of the 3D printer and the part, illustrates the existence of contradictions. The analysis supports the early redesign of both parts and AM process (equipment) and later optimization of the control parameters.


Author(s):  
R. S. Amano

The objective of the present study is to investigate the steam flow behavior through the high-pressure turbine bypass valve. Efforts have mainly been directed at investigating the process of steam flow and property variations aforementioned bypass valve as well as to obtain correlations between the flow rate and the valve opening ratio. Modeling of the high-pressure turbulent steam flow was performed on a three-dimensional non-staggered (co-located) grid system by employing the finite volume method and by solving the three-dimensional, turbulent, compressible Navier-Stokes, and energy equations. Through this research, numerous data have been acquired and analyzed. These efforts enable us to obtain a correlation data set for the flow rate coefficient as a function of valve opening. One of the significant accomplishments is to use the model presented here for further improve a design of a turbine bypass flow valve.


Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (5) ◽  
pp. 1162
Author(s):  
Nectarios Vidakis ◽  
Markos Petousis ◽  
Lazaros Tzounis ◽  
Sotirios A. Grammatikos ◽  
Emmanouil Porfyrakis ◽  
...  

The continuous demand for thermoplastic polymers in a great variety of applications, combined with an urgent need to minimize the quantity of waste for a balanced energy-from-waste strategy, has led to increasing scientific interest in developing new recycling processes for plastic products. Glycol-modified polyethylene terephthalate (PETG) is known to have some enhanced properties as compared to polyethylene terephthalate (PET) homopolymer; this has recently attracted the interest from the fused filament fabrication (FFF) three-dimensional (3D) printing community. PET has shown a reduced ability for repeated recycling through traditional processes. Herein, we demonstrate the potential for using recycled PETG in consecutive 3D printing manufacturing processes. Distributed recycling additive manufacturing (DRAM)-oriented equipment was chosen in order to test the mechanical and thermal response of PETG material in continuous recycling processes. Tensile, flexure, impact strength, and Vickers micro-hardness tests were carried out for six (6) cycles of recycling. Finally, Raman spectroscopy as well as thermal and morphological analyses via scanning electron microscopy (SEM) fractography were carried out. In general, the results revealed a minor knockdown effect on the mechanical properties as well as the thermal properties of PETG following the process proposed herein, even after six rounds of recycling.


Author(s):  
R. S. Amano

The objective of the present study is to investigate the steam flow behavior through the high-pressure turbine bypass valve. Efforts have mainly been directed at investigating the process of steam flow and property variations aforementioned bypass valve as well as to obtain correlations between the flow rate and the valve opening ratio. Modeling of the high-pressure turbulent steam flow was performed on a three-dimensional non-staggered (co-located) grid system by employing the finite volume method and by solving the three-dimensional, turbulent, compressible Navier-Stokes, and energy equations. Through this research, numerous data have been acquired and analyzed. These efforts enable us to obtain a correlation data set for the flow rate coefficient as a function of valve opening. One of the significant accomplishments is to use the model presented here for further improve a design of a turbine bypass flow valve.


Author(s):  
Ases Akas Mishra ◽  
Affaf Momin ◽  
Matteo Strano ◽  
Kedarnath Rane

AbstractFused Filament Fabrication (FFF) is an Additive Manufacturing (AM) process that builds up a part via layer by layer deposition of polymeric material. The purpose of this study is to implement viscosity and density models for improving the assessment of melt flow behavior inside the nozzle during deposition. Numerical simulations are carried out for different combinations of important process parameters like extrusion velocity Ve, extrusion temperature Te, and filament material (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) and Polylactic Acid (PLA)). Cross-Williams–Landel–Ferry (Cross-WLF) viscosity and Pressure–Volume–Temperature (PVT) density models are incorporated to get realistic results. Distribution of printing parameters like pressure, temperature, velocity and viscosity inside the nozzle are observed at steady state and their relationship with the print quality is discussed. Effect of the PVT model on polymer deposition is illustrated by comparing it with deposition considering a constant density. Velocity profiles are obtained for the different cases considered and locations where the flow is fully developed, along the axial distance of the nozzle, are determined and termed as stable zones. A direct correlation between the position of the developed melt flow profile and printing quality is established and the best combination of printing parameters is proposed for ABS and PLA. Extended stable zones are obtained for the polymer melt in the nozzle at Ve = 60 mm/s, Te = 220 °C for ABS and Ve = 30 mm/s and Te = 195 °C for PLA and hence, these can be considered as the optimum values of the printing parameters.


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