Development of a multi-material 3D printing system with integrated post-production processes

• Autor(a) principal: Silvestre, Filipe André Antão
• Data de Publicação: 2017
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositórios Científicos de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (RCAAP)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10362/31874
• topic: Domínio/Área Científica::Engenharia e Tecnologia::Engenharia dos Materiais

This thesis main objective is to integrate 3D printing techniques with a post-processing method in a singular system. The idea is to use an existing 3D printer as the base structure, and then integrate an independent equipment for extrusion and spraying, as well as a laser system resulting in a multi-material 3D printing system with integrated post-production proce-dures. The first task consisted in the substitution and suitability of the entire electronics, followed by the ability to print a viscous material by extrusion and this was tested by defining a range of parameters for which it is possible to obtain the desired design of the 3D printed part. With the preliminary tests accomplished it was verified the need for some adjustments, for example, an inclusion of a heating plate on the printing surface. This equipment gives an extrusion/spray ability to the 3D printer, so that it can be used with different material and/or viscosities. The next step was finding a solution for the coupling of the “add-on” type laser to perform the post-processing as a sintering and / or crosslink source. After installation of all components came the operation test and finishing, such as introduction of laser radiation protection panels, com-pressed air inlets, extruder / spray control source, etc. The last part of this thesis was to assess the functionality of the full system and test the printing parameters: for the extrusion were: first layer height, rotation speed, print speed, den-sity, layer height, software’s nozzle diameter, leaning capacity, double wall support; for the spray: dispensing time, dispenser exit width, dispensing height; and for the laser: manual focus and power.