thesis about 3d printer

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STUDY, DESIGN AND FABRICATION OF A 3D PRINTER A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF TECHNOLOGY IN MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

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International Journal for Research in Applied Science & Engineering Technology (IJRASET), 2022

3D printing is called as desktop fabrication. It is a process of prototyping where by a structure is synthesized from a 3d model. The 3d model is stored in as a STL format and then forwarded to a 3D printer. It can use a good range of materials like ABS, PLA, and composites also .3D printing may be a rapidly developing and price optimized sort of rapid prototyping. The 3D printer prints the CAD design layer by layer forming a true object. 3D printing springs from inkjet desktop printers during which multiple deposit jets and therefore the printing material, layer by layer derived from the CAD 3D data. 3D printing significantly challenges production processes within the future. This type of printing is predicted to influence industries, like automotive, medical, education, equipment, consumer products industries and various businesses.

IRJET, 2022

The following paper is on 3D printing & its other topics which become notable points in technological aspects. The 3D printing technique is a fast emerging technology. This technology can print the object layer by layer deposition of material directly from a CAD model. Prototyping can be classified into different processes such as FDM, SLA, SLS, DLF, LOM, DMLS. These processes can be use as per the requirement of models. The material used for the printing determines the quality of the model. Different processing parameters of printing affect the efficiency, quality, production rates of the parts, objects, components, etc. On the basis of optimized parameters the mechanical properties & manufacturing time can be enhanced. It is widely used across the world owing to its variety of applications in various sectors. As well as it will play vital role in day to day human life in future.

IAEME PUBLICATION, 2020

Now a day, the 3D printing is an increasingly commercially used technology. A crucial section of 3D printing is for providing the printer with printable content if possible, which is achieved by using reels of plastic filament, the most common is PLA, but it is the final product which is sold separately. For this situation, the other option arises that plastic material can be recycled and reused through bottles which are disposable which were discarded in order to be used as printable material. 3D Printing Technology is also defined as rapid prototyping, where a 3-dimensional structure is formed by laying the specific material layers. Three phases such as design, printing & finishing are included here in this process. They use any CAD software in the first step to create 3d design. Use this template to build an object in the 2nd stage 3D printer. And the finished item of the third step is extracted from the printer. This technology saves time and money. This avoids material waste. It is very useful to give the demo of any product in industries.

The purpose of this venture, or study, was to design and manufacture a 3-D printing machine while placing an emphasis on making the printer very cheap and maintaining high accuracy at the same time. Additive manufacturing machines that are currently available on the market that feature a large build volume complemented by high accuracy of the finished product cost on average approximately Rs. 40,00070,000 (700-1200 USD). The challenge confronted by this study was to overcome this price point by building a printer that maintained high accuracy and built volume while being as cheap as possible to manufacture. Therefore, the parameters that were set for this project were a budget of approximately Rs. 25,000 (380 USD) in order to manufacture a machine that provided a built volume of 25 x 25 x 20 cm. The machine also had to provide a high accuracy of finish and the baseline for accuracy was set at 100 microns..

3D printing also known as Additive manufacturing technology has been dubbed the next big thing and be as equally wide spread as cellular telephone industry. 3D printers print objects from a digital template to a physical 3-dimensional physical object. The printing is done layer by layer (Additive manufacturing) using plastic, metal, nylon, and over a hundred other materials. 3D printing has been found to be useful in sectors such as manufacturing, industrial design, jewellery, footwear, architecture, engineering and construction, automotive, aerospace, dental and medical industries, education, geographic information systems, civil engineering, and many others. It has been found to be a fast and cost effective solution in whichever field of use. The applications of 3D printing are ever increasing and it’s proving to be a very exciting technology to look out for. In this paper we seek to explore how it works and the current and future applications of 3D printing.

Printing is a process for reproducing text and images, typically with ink on paper using a print press.3D printing is method of converting a virtual 3D model into a physical object from a digital file. It is achieved using Additive Process, where an object is created by laying down successive layers of material until the entire object is created.3D printing could revolutionize and reshape the world. Advances in 3D printing technology can significantly change and improve the manufacturing world with effects on energy use, waste reduction, customization, product availability, medicine, art, construction and science. By using this technology it becomes easier to transmit designs for new objects around the world

International Journal of Innovative Research in Science, Engineering and Technology (IJIRSET), 2022

Co-Founder, Autosustaintive 3D printing and prototyping services, Vishrambagh, Sangli, India 3 Technical Consultant, Autosustaintive 3D printing and prototyping services, Vishrambagh, Sangli, India 4 ABSTRACT:-3D printing is an additive manufacturing process in which the entire part of a product is constructed using layer by layer deposition of materials that based on plastic and its derivatives. There are various processes of 3D printing namely fused deposition modelling (FDM), selective laser sintering (SLS), stereolithography (SLA), digital light processing (DLP), and multi jet fusion (MJF) to name a few. Each process has its unique characteristics and applications but the fused deposition modelling process is widely used due to its simplicity. As additive manufacturing processes becoming more common coupled with rapid technological advancement in the manufacturing sector, we may see the decentralised manufacturing network in the near future. The prices of 3D printers vary depending of several factors related to the type of printing material used, and the precision and quality requirements. This paper discusses a study conducted on using low cost 3d printer for rapid prototyping a commercially ready product. It also summarises the experiences, advantages and disadvantages of the study.

United International Journal for Research & Technology, 2020

In this paper, we have talked about the technological development related to 3D printing. In which we have explained how 3D printing works and how it will affect our lives in the future. As we all know that 3D printing is going to be involved gradually in our everyday life. Therefore, we must bring new ideas about 3D printing for the benefit of society. As seen, 3D printing makes many of our tasks much easier, and we will be able to use it on a smaller scale, even in our homes in future. As we all know that there are always some flaws in technology in the initial stages. However, we are always on the path of making those techniques best by removing those imperfections. If seen, 3D printing is not a new technology, work has been going on for many years. However, the way we are now seeing the possibility. From this it seems that in future it will be used much more. In the coming time, most everyday items will be able to be made according to their requirement in a short time with the help of 3D printing. This will be a technique and a new way of advancement in technology.

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Additive manufacturing (3 D printing) : challenges and opportunities for large scale adoption

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UKnowledge > College of Engineering > Mechanical Engineering > Theses & Dissertations > 144

Theses and Dissertations--Mechanical Engineering

Design and process of 3d-printed parts using composite theory.

Jordan Garcia , University of Kentucky Follow

Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5328-4882

Date Available

Year of publication, degree name.

Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering (MSME)

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Engineering

Department/School/Program

Mechanical Engineering

First Advisor

Dr. Y. Charles Lu

3D printing is a revolutionary manufacturing method that allows the productions of engineering parts almost directly from modeling software on a computer. With 3D printing technology, future manufacturing could become vastly efficient. However, it is observed that the procedures used in 3D printing differ substantially among the printers and from those used in conventional manufacturing. In this thesis, the mechanical properties of engineering products fabricated by 3D printing were comprehensively evaluated and then compared with those made by conventional manufacturing. Three open-source 3D printers, i.e., the Flash Forge Dreamer, the Tevo Tornado, and the Prusa, were used to fabricate the identical parts out of the same material (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene). The parts were printed at various positions on the printer platforms and then tested in bending. Results indicate that there exist substantial differences in mechanical responses among the parts by different 3D printers. Specimens from the Prusa printer exhibit the best elastic properties while specimens from the Flash Forge printer exhibit the greatest post-yield responses. There further exist noticeable variations in mechanical properties among the parts that were fabricated by the same printer. Depending on the positions that the parts were placed on a printer platform, the properties of resultant parts can vary greatly. For comparison, identical parts were fabricated using a conventional manufacturing method, i.e., compression molding. Results show that compression molded parts exhibit more robust and more homogeneous properties than those from 3D printing. During 3D printing, the machine code (e.g., the Gcode) would provide the processing instructions (the x, y, and z coordinates and the linear movements) to the printer head to construct the physical parts. Often times the default processing instructions used by commercial 3D printers may not yield the optimal mechanical properties of the parts. In the second part of this thesis, the orientation-dependent properties of 3D printed parts were examined. The multi-layered composite theory was used to design the directions of printing so that the properties of 3D printed objects can be optimized. Such method can potentially be used to design and optimize the 3D printing of complex engineering products. In the last part of this thesis, the printing process of an actual automobile A-pillar structure was designed and optimized. The finite element software (ANSYS) was used to design and optimize the filament orientations of the A-pillar. Actual parts from the proposed designs were fabricated using 3D printer and then tested. Consistent results have been observed between computational designs and experimental testing. It is recommended that the filament orientations in 3D-printing be “designed” or “tailored” by using laminate composite theory. The method would allow 3D printers to produce parts with optimal microstructure and mechanical properties to better satisfy the specific needs.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.13023/etd.2019.418

Recommended Citation

Garcia, Jordan, "DESIGN AND PROCESS OF 3D-PRINTED PARTS USING COMPOSITE THEORY" (2019). Theses and Dissertations--Mechanical Engineering . 144. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/me_etds/144

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The Implementation and Development of 3D Concrete Printing for On-Site Applications in Construction

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MIT researchers make progress on 3D-printed electronics, using semiconductor-free logic gates

Researchers demonstrate 3D-printed resettable fuses, which include a copper-doped polymer

Last week, MIT researchers published a blog post highlighting a paper detailing work on fully 3D printable electronics — namely a simple, semiconductor-free logic gate. The original paper was written by Jorge Cañada, a grad student in electrical engineering and computer science, and Luis Fernando Velásquez-García, a principal research scientist in MIT's Microsystems Technology Laboratories.

Logic gates can be used for undemanding workloads including controlling the speed of a motor, and MIT researchers have proven that for such simple electronics, usage of 3D printing and a biodegradable copper-doped polymer can forego the need for semiconductors at such a small scale.

"The technology has real legs. While we cannot compete with silicon as a semiconductor, our idea is not to necessarily replace what is existing, but to push 3D printing technology into uncharted territory," Velásquez-García said in the blog post. "In a nutshell, this is really about democratizing technology. This could allow anyone to create smart hardware far from traditional manufacturing centers."

This project emerged purely by happenstance while the researchers were focused on another project, which was focused on fabricating magnetic coils using extrusion printing. This project used the same copper-lined polymer filament as the fully 3D-printable logic gates, and they realized that pushing electric current through could let it function as a simple transistor thanks to its level of electrical resistance. Polymers tested with materials besides copper, like carbon and graphene, could not provide the same results.

While these 3D printable logic gates are hardly a substitute for modern semiconductors, especially at scale, Velásquez-García says that "the reality is that there are many engineering situations that don't require the best chips. At the end of the day, all you care about is whether your device can do the task." Velásquez-García asserts, "This technology is able to satisfy a constraint like that."

MIT includes a quote from Roger Howe, the William E. Ayer Professor of Engineering, Emeritus, at Stanford University, who says, "This paper demonstrates that active electronic devices can be made using extruded polymeric conductive materials. This technology enables electronics to be built into 3D-printed structures. An intriguing application is on-demand 3D printing of mechatronics onboard spacecraft."

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Creality Ender 3 V3 3D Printer with High Speed and Precision

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The machine will dramatically cut down on production time, saving over 150,000 hours.

Mrigakshi Dixit

The 90-tonne Automated Fiber Placement (AFP) machine.

Rocket Lab/YouTube  

Building large composite rockets has been a painstaking process. Teams of engineers spend countless hours manually laying thousands of layers of carbon fiber, ensuring precise alignment and quality.

Rocket Lab has now simplified this process with its innovative Automated Fiber Placement (AFP) machine. Thanks to this equipment, the process will be streamlined from weeks to a single day.

The company is using this huge 90-ton machine to 3D-print its Neutron rocket. This giant 3D printer can make carbon fiber layers at incredible speeds, building complex structures with unmatched precision.

“As we build the world’s largest carbon composite rocket, it makes sense that we require a world-first carbon composite fiber placement machine,” said Sir Peter Beck, Rocket Lab founder and CEO, in an earlier release. 

High-speed machine

In August, the company installed this largest AFP machine at its Neutron rocket factory in Middle River, Maryland. 

The 39-foot (12-meter) robotic machine, custom-built by Electroimpact in Washington, can 3D print carbon-fiber layers.

Interestingly, the machine can rapidly lay carbon fiber composite at a speed of 328 feet (100 meters) per minute while moving up to 98 feet (30 meters) in length.

The machine will fully automate the production of the Neutron ‘s large composite structures.

This includes the panels for the 91-ft (28-meter) interstage and fairing, the 22.9-ft (7-meter) first stage tank, and the 16.4-ft (5-meter) second stage tank. 

In other words, the machine will be able to produce all of the large parts of the Neutron rocket that are made of composite materials. This will help to make the production of the Neutron rocket more efficient and cost-effective.

Inspection system

Moreover, this autonomous machine has a built-in inspection system that can automatically check for tiny defects in the carbon fiber composite material as it is being laid down.

If the system finds a defect, it will alert the operator so that they can fix it before the machine continues to the next layer. This helps ensure that the launch vehicle’s structures meet Rocket Lab’s high-quality standards, which are necessary for reusable Neutron launches.

“We’re combining our proprietary flight-proven carbon composite technology, additive manufacturing, and autonomous robotics to design and build large-scale aerospace components at a pace that will support not only Neutron’s launch cadence, but support Electron and carbon composites structures for our spacecraft customers too,” said Beck in the press release.

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The AFP machine will be used to produce various small carbon composite structures, including Electron first stages, and other spacecraft parts.

While other rockets like SpaceX ‘s Starship and Boeing’s Starliner use different materials, Rocket Lab’s Neutron is pioneering the use of carbon fiber composites on a massive scale. This material offers incredible strength and lightweight properties, making it ideal for space travel. With this machine, the company will be able to launch more frequently and at a lower cost.

Rocket Lab plans to launch the first Neutron rocket in 2025.

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3D printer capable of printing houses and reducing hurricane impact arrives in Florida

A 3D printer capable of printing houses and seawalls arrived in Florida late last month, bringing with it the potential to mitigate the impacts of hurricanes and develop the local workforce and construction industry.

The two-story construction printer known as BOD3 is manufactured by Denmark-based COBOD International and was shipped to the University of Florida’s East Campus last month.

It arrived unassembled on Sept. 20, becoming the first BOD3 to arrive in the U.S. and one of the first in circulation after COBOD released the new model in September.

BOD3 is what Chaofeng Wang, assistant professor in UF’s M.E. Rinker, Sr. School of Construction Management, called a robot system designed for infrastructure construction. That means the printer will complete projects autonomously once code is inputted and material supplied.

The material is a special concrete recipe developed onsite, according to Wang. He said its use in construction can reduce the impact of hurricanes since concrete has much more structural integrity than other building materials.

“There [is] a lot of damage to wooden houses. Imagine you can print those houses using concrete,” Wang said. “You don’t need to worry about storm wind and the water anymore. We can actually build a new generation of resilient, sustainable infrastructure.”

Wang said Florida is a good place for BOD3 to be.

“I’m very excited. I think Florida is a very good region for this kind of research because we can apply the research immediately to the real-world application, especially when you consider hurricanes,” he said.

Iris Rivero, department chair of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Florida, led the effort to bring BOD3 to Florida. She said the state was a driving factor in the purchase of the printer for around $800,000.

“With all the different hurricanes and phenomena that have been occurring, Florida is posed in a situation…where we can actually think about more resilient ways to build communities,” Rivero said. “[There are] more opportunities that may align well with the state’s needs and priorities.”

Unlike its predecessor, BOD2, BOD3 is much more mobile. It’s also modular, meaning it can shrink and grow as needed to accommodate a variety of prints.

Rivero said a part of UF’s research on the printer will look at how this mobility allows the equipment to be on standby when weather strikes.

“Can we actually build procedures where, as soon as you start noticing that there's something being formed in the sea, you can start preparing and start building any kind of shelter?” she said. “When we have tornadoes, when we have floods, when we have hurricanes, can we actually deploy the system right away and build? That’s something we’re really interested in.”

BOD3’s modularity and mobility make the printer more efficient, according to COBOD’s website. Prints can be completed more quickly and its extendable track-based design allows for continuous printing, which is useful for construction on sites with multiple housing projects.

It also means communities affected by hurricanes may be able to build back faster and recover sooner.

Aside from reducing the impacts of weather, Rivero said BOD3 will help people develop themselves and serve community and industry needs.

“We’re going to be starting programs for workforce development [which] is going to be extremely crucial,” she said. “We have lost a lot of people in the construction industry…so what are the new techniques? How can we actually use this technique and then build people’s résumés in this particular industry?”

Rivero said another important aspect is sustainability and the reduction of challenges associated with supply and demand issues.

Since the concrete material is locally sourced, companies can establish themselves in local regions and reduce carbon emissions that come from the transportation of raw materials.

She said in the long run, she hopes enough people will know how to use the printer so it can be quickly deployed in emergencies or used for other needs — industrial or creative.

Rivero said it’s open to anyone who wants to get trained on the machine.

Rivero said the printer’s current location, the Weil Hall Structures and Materials Laboratory, was a conscious decision because it provides people easy access to the machine.

BOD3 is awaiting assembly in the lab where the lab’s associate engineer, Taylor Rawlinson, said dialing in the printer’s concrete material is the primary focus.

BOD3 can process 4 to 6 cubic yards of concrete per hour, according to Rawlinson.

“It’s quite the production,” he said. “It’s a lot of material we’re going to use.”

Getting that material right on a small scale is key before moving to larger structures, he said.

For now, BOD3 will be printing small structures — walls, dog houses, igloos — in the lab before it is used in the field. Rawlinson said the goal is to eventually print a demonstration research facility on UF’s east campus.

Research conducted at UF and in the field will help COBOD inform its new designs and next steps.

Zoë Knudsen, head of products and communication at COBOD, said feedback from users is “huge.”

“Whatever feedback that we can get, or whatever kind of key insights that they have from using our machines is something that we can feed back into our team so that they can develop even more advanced, more capable products and machines,” she said. “We’re trying to take [3D construction printing] even further.”

Knudsen said construction projects using BOD3 are just beginning.

“Three [printers] are actually being used right now in Indonesia and Angola, which is quite interesting to see,” she said. “And now the University of Florida is going to be a part of this new printer model, which is really, really exciting.”

BOD3 will likely be assembled in December or January as part of a two-week in-person training that its manufacturer will lead.

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