Design and fabrication of fused deposition modelling FDM based composite printer

Additive manufacturing is an advanced field of manufacturing. Additive manufacturing is a broader term used these days for technologies fabricating products by adding build materials layer by layer. Fused deposition modelling based polymer printers recently gained popularity due to its open source h

Project Title

Design and fabrication of fused deposition modelling FDM based composite printer

Project Area of Specialization

3D/4D Printing

Project Summary

Additive manufacturing is an advanced field of manufacturing. Additive manufacturing is a broader term used these days for technologies fabricating products by adding build materials layer by layer. Fused deposition modelling based polymer printers recently gained popularity due to its open source hardware and software availability. It enables engineers, product designers and manufacturers to make complex geometry shape products directly from computer aided design (CAD) models.

Like every man made product, this technology also has some limitations. Parts fabricated using this technique are anisotropic in property nature. Specially, the parts fabricated with polymer extrusion. These parts are suitable for visual purpose but not good for end usable parts. Their strength and directional properties act as a barrier in their application as an end user product. According to literature many solutions have been proposed. Some researchers blended different materials to produce stronger and stiffer material filaments. Some introduced chopped fibers in their filaments and parts. Keeping in view above presented work, we will reinforce our parts with continuous fiber.

Therefore, our main aim is to design and fabricate Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) based composite printer head. This printing head should be capable of printing with continuous fiber along with polymer matrix material. The fiber cutting mechanism in head is recommended optional to keep the design simpler for this project.

We are using RepRap based open source 3D printer hardware assembly for testing our composite head design. These assemblies will be changed according to our design requirement. We will be using Kevlar or Glass fiber as a continuous fiber and acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) or poly-lactic acid (PLA) for our matrix material depending on availability in market.
 

Project Objectives

The objectives of our project are

• Design a 3D printer head for polymer matrix material extrusion.
• Design of mechanisms to print continuous fiber in conjunction with polymer material.
• Fabrication of the above mentioned designed mechanism.
• Incorporate fiber cutting mechanism in design (optional).
• Fabrication of a 3D Printer to validate our design by printing with newly designed and fabricated head.
• Printing composite test specimens for tensile testing.
• Testing and comparing results of printed tensile test specimens to conventional polymer based printers.

Project Implementation Method

Fused filament fabrication (FFF) is a 3D printing technique which allows layer-by-layer build-up of a part by the deposition of thermoplastic material through a nozzle. The technique allows for complex shapes to be made with a degree of design freedom unachievable with traditional manufacturing methods. However, the mechanical properties of the thermoplastic materials used are low compared to common engineering materials.

Our work, in composite 3D printer is to reinforce Kevlar or glass fiber into a thermoplastic matrix to increase strength and stiffness. The very first step of our project is to study how the reinforcement fibers alter the properties of the printed object. During our literature review, we see that printing of continuous carbon fibers using the Mark-One printer gives significant increases in performance over unreinforced thermoplastics. Then there is second phase of designing the head of the printer which is capable of printing both the materials at the same time. The last phase is the design of the whole printer which will be according to our head design to print tensile test specimens.

Benefits of the Project

This project is beneficial in respect that new field of composite 3D printers will be opened for engineers and hobbyists. Through this project, they will be able to fabricate lighter and strong parts for end usability.  Very few companies are able to print composite materials. This techniques is new in its way of implementation and application.

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

Our main objective in this project is to blend continuous fiber with ABS or PLA which means a 3d printer which is capable of composite printing. Our head design for printing composite is such that we are using only single nozzle assembly through which the mixture of fiber and thermoplastic will come out. The cutting mechanism in head for fiber is optional. During printing we have to maintain the surrounding temperature so that our final product quality is good otherwise if we don’t maintain the temperature the layers will not then settle with each other. Using heated bed is one of the solution to maintain the temperature of the product. We are using composite so our main goal is also to achieve the product which is more reliable strength wise than the object printed using only thermoplastic.

Final Deliverable of the Project

Hardware System

Core Industry

Manufacturing

Other Industries

Core Technology

3D/4D Printing

Other Technologies

Sustainable Development Goals

Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

Required Resources

If you need this project, please contact me on contact@adikhanofficial.com