Engineering Commons^™

Optimizing Build Plate Adhesion Of Polymers In Fused Granule Fabrication Processes, Alex Schroeder, Jason Weaver

Faculty Publications

Perhaps the most crucial element of fused granule fabrication (FGF) is material adhesion; in order to achieve a successful product, the material being printed must adhere to the build plate. For optimal products, the material should only adhere to the build plate until the print is complete, then be easily removable. This paper examines the effects of different build plates, environments, and bonding agents on material adhesion during the FGF process in a CNC mill machine. The force to remove polycarbonate (PC) and polypropylene (PP) from build plates was tested with various bonding agents. Except in one case, the adhesive …

A Comparison Of Layer Deposition And Open Molding Of Petg By Fused Pellet Fabrication In An Additive Manufacturing System, Alex Gibson, Jason Weaver

Faculty Publications

Additive manufacturing continues to offer new possibilities in both production and economics. The industry has quickly adopted it to rapidly produce parts that would be difficult or cost preventative otherwise. Recent innovation has expanded its capabilities, however there are still significant limitations. Most AM processes are restricted by materials available, in producing large parts, or by not achieving material deposition speeds to make certain products feasible. In addition, tight tolerances for features and surfaces cannot be produced without substantial post processing. High-speed Fused Pellet Fabrication (FPF) in combination with Hybrid Manufacturing (HM) offers expanded capabilities as additive and subtractive process …

Controlled Pre-Wetting Of Spread Powder And Its Effects On Part Formation And Printing Parameters In Binder Jetting Additive Manufacturing, Colton G. Inkley

Theses and Dissertations

Binder jetting is an additive manufacturing process that layer by layer builds a 3D model by selectively binding regions of powder using binder deposited though an inkjet printhead. The process offers several advantages over other additive manufacturing processes including fast build rates, vast material selection, decreased cost, and part resolution. The main disadvantage of binder jetting is poor mechanical properties, stemming from a poor understanding of the process physics. Porosity in final parts is not uncommon, but there is little understanding of where the porosity originates. The purpose of this thesis is to report the investigation of increased powder bed …

Multi-Material 3d-Printed Silicone Vocal Fold Models, Clayton Adam Young

Theses and Dissertations

Self-oscillating synthetic vocal fold (VF) models are often used to study human voice production. In this thesis, a method for fabricating multi-layer self-oscillating synthetic VF models using silicone 3D printing is presented. Multi-material 3D printing enables faster fabrication times with more complex geometries than traditional casting methods and builds a foundation for producing VF models with potentially more life-like geometries, materials, and vibratory characteristics. The printing method in this study used a custom dual extruder and slicing software to print UV-curable liquid silicone into a gel-like support matrix. The extruder was fabricated using high-torque stepper motors with high resolution leadscrews …

Optical Observation Of Large Area Projection Sintering, Derek Black

Theses and Dissertations

Polymer powder bed fusion (PBF/P) is one of many additive manufacturing (AM) processes utilized for producing polymer parts from digital 3D models. AM is preferred over traditional manufacturing methods in many applications due to advantages including tool-less manufacturing, high geometric complexity, short lead times, and reduced material waste. However, many industries that stand to benefit the most from AM are limited in their ability to use AM parts in large part due to low confidence in AM part quality. Among the polymer AM processes, PBF/P processes show significant promise for these applications due to their comparatively high isotropy and mechanical …

Closed Loop Recycling Of Low Friction Polymers In Fused Granule Fabrication Additive Manufacturing Processes, Neil Thompson, Jason Weaver

Faculty Publications

Plastic waste is a critical worldwide problem that impacts additive manufacturing (AM). Extensive research has explored how plastic waste in AM can be reduced by recycling prints into new filament, with varying success. An alternative to filament-based extrusion is “fused granule fabrication” (FGF), which extrudes from pellets or granules. This method is often used for large area additive manufacturing (LAAM) of polymers. This paper expands upon the knowledge base from previous research on LAAM and examines the extent to which PETG can be recycled and reprinted through the same FGF tool without significant loss to its material properties. The metric …

The Impact Of Inkjet Parameters And Environmental Conditions In Binder Jetting Additive Manufacturing, Trenton Miles Colton

Theses and Dissertations

Binder jetting is an additive manufacturing process in which a part is fabricated layer-by-layer using inkjet technology to selectively dispense binder into powder layers in a designated area. The approach gives this process significant advantages over other additive manufacturing processes such as lower cost, capability to print in a wide range of materials, and little to no heat applied. Although binder jetting has many advantages and has been successful implemented in various industries its overall rate of adoption is slow compared to other processes. This is largely due to poor mechanical properties and consistency in printing which stems from a …

Active Thermography For Additive Manufacturing Processes, Nicholas Jay Wallace

Theses and Dissertations

The goal of the research conducted for this master's thesis is to understand if active thermography is a suitable technique to detect (identify) and measure (approximate depth and or size) defects in additive manufacturing (AM) processes. Although other non-destructive measurement techniques exist, active thermography is an attractive option for AM applications because of the short measurement times that could be implemented between each layer of a print, and because of the relatively inexpensive equipment required. However, pulse thermography is typically applied to detect larger defects (>1 mm) in materials with high thermal conductivity. It was uncertain if active thermography …

Feasibility And Impact Of Liquid/Liquid-Encased Dopants As Method Of Composition Control In Laser Powder Bed Fusion, Taylor Matthew Davis

Theses and Dissertations

Additive manufacturing (AM) – and laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) specifically – constructs geometry that would not be possible using standard manufacturing techniques. This geometric versatility allows integration of multiple components into a single part. While this practice can reduce weight and part count, there are also serious drawbacks. One is that the LPBF process can only build parts with a single material. This limitation generally results in over-designing some areas of the part to compensate for the compromise in material choice. Over-designing can lead to decreased functional efficiency, increased weight, etc. in LPBF parts. Methods to control the material …

Interface Joint Strength Between Ss316l Wrought Substrate And Powder Bed Fusion Built Parts - Data, Jason M. Weaver, John R. Linn, Michael P. Miles

ScholarsArchive Data

Data for Materials article "Interface Joint Strength between SS316L Wrought Substrate and Powder Bed Fusion Built Parts"

powder bed fusion; additive manufacturing; ss316l; interface strength

Effects Of Conformal Cooling Channels On Additively Manufactured Injection Molding Tooling, Tyler Blaine Whatcott

Theses and Dissertations

This study focuses on the cycle-averaged mold temperature of additively manufactured injection molding tooling and how it is affected by conformal cooling channels. This was done by producing a benchmark mold out of Digital ABS produced by Stratasys, an acrylic based photopolymer, which was then used to produce injection molded parts until tool failure. Another, more cost-effective material, High Temp Resin produced by Formlabs, another acrylic based photopolymer, was also tested but yielded very little success. Then the mold design was altered by adding conformal cooling channels and again tested by producing injection molded parts while tracking the mold temperature. …

Additive Manufacturing And Characterization Of Agi And Agi–Al2O3 Composite Electrolytes For Resistive Switching Devices, Benjamin J. Brownlee, Lok-Kun Tsui, Karthik Vempati, John B. Plumley, Brian D. Iverson, Thomas L. Peng, Fernando H. Garzon

Faculty Publications

This work investigates the electrochemical dynamics and performance of additively manufactured composite electrolytes for resistive switching. Devices are comprised of a Ag/AgI–Al₂O₃/Pt stack, where the solid state electrolyte is additively manufactured using extrusion techniques. AgI–Al₂O₃ composite electrolytes are characterized by x-ray diffraction and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The ionic conductivities of the electrolytes were measured for different concentrations of Al₂O₃, observing a maximum conductivity of 4.5 times the conductivity of pure AgI for composites with 20 mol. % Al₂O₃. There was little change in activation energy …

Silicone 3d Printing Processes For Fabricating Synthetic, Self-Oscillating Vocal Fold Models, Taylor Eugene Greenwood

Theses and Dissertations

Synthetic, self-oscillating vocal fold (VF) models are physical models whose life-like vibration is induced and perpetuated by fluid flow. Self-oscillating VF models, which are often fabricated life-size from soft silicone elastomers, are used to study various aspects of voice biomechanics. Despite their many advantages, the development and use of self-oscillating VF models is limited by the casting process used to fabricate the models. Consequently, this thesis focuses on the development of 3D printing processes for fabricating silicone VF models. A literature review is first presented which describes three types of material extrusion 3D printing processes for silicone elastomers, namely direct …

Impact Of Part Thickness And Drying Conditions On Saturation Limits In Binder Jet Additive Manufacturing, Nathan B. Crane

Faculty Publications

Binder jetting (BJ) is a high build-rate additive manufacturing process with growing commercial interest. Growth in BJ applications is driven by the use of finer powders and improved post-processing methods that can produce dense, homogenous final parts. However, understanding of the basic droplet/powder interaction is relatively limited. This paper considers the impact of in-process drying, part geometry, and droplet size on a key printing parameter: binder saturation. Parts of varying thicknesses are printed with a range of saturation levels under various heating conditions. The ratio of the printed part mass to the theoretical part mass is used to detect bleeding. …

Influence Of Droplet Velocity, Spacing, And Inter-Arrival Time On Line Formation And Saturation In Binder Jet Additive Manufacturing, Trenton Colton, Nathan B. Crane

Faculty Publications

Binder Jetting (BJ) is a low-cost Additive Manufacturing (AM) process that uses inkjet technology to selectively bind particles in a powder bed. BJ relies on the ability to control, not only the placement of binder on the surface but also its imbibition into the powder bed. This is a complex process in which picoliter-sized droplets impact powder beds at velocities of 1-10 m/s. However, the effects of printing parameters such as droplet velocity, size, spacing, and inter-arrival time on saturation level (fraction of pore space filled with binder) and line formation (merging of droplets to form a line) are unknown. …

Adhesion Testing Of Printed Inks While Varying The Surface Treatment Of Polymer Substrates, Clayton Neff, Edwin Elston, Amanda Schrand, Nathan B. Crane

Faculty Publications

Additive manufacturing with conductive materials enables new approaches to printed electronics that are unachievable by standard electronics manufacturing processes. In particular, electronics can be embedded directly into structural components in nearly arbitrary 3D space. While these methods incorporate many of the same materials, the new processing methods require standard test methods to compare materials, processing conditions, and determine design limits. This work demonstrates a test method to quantitatively measure the adhesion failure of printed inks deposited on a substrate without changing the ink printing conditions. The proposed method is an adaption of single lap shear testing in which the lap …

Mechanical And Temperature Resilience Of Multi-Material Systems For Printed Electronics Packaging, Clayton Neff, Justin Nussbaum, Chris Gardiner, Nathan B. Crane, James L. Zunino, Mike Newton

Faculty Publications

In this work, two AM technologies were utilized to compare the effectiveness of fabricating a simple electronic device with a conductive trace and hollow cylinder representative of ‘printed packaging’ that would survive harsh environmental conditions. The printed packaging cylinder delineates printed potting for electronics packaging. An nScrypt direct write (DW) system was the primary manufacturing system but a developing technology—coined large area projection sintering (LAPS)—manufactured a subset of samples for comparison. The tests follow Military Standard (MIL STD) 883K and include resiliency evaluation for die shear strength, temperature cycling, thermal shock, and high G loading by mechanical shock. Results indicate …

Development And Analysis Of 3d-Printed Synthetic Vocal Fold Models, Ryan Gregory Romero

Theses and Dissertations

Vocal fold models are valuable for studying voice production. They provide an alternative method of studying the mechanics of the voice that does not require in vivo experimentation or the use of excised human or animal tissue. In this thesis, a new method of creating vocal fold models through additive manufacturing is described. The purpose of this research was to reduce model fabrication time, to decrease the number of model failures during manufacturing, and to lay the foundation for creating models with more lifelike geometric and material properties. This research was conducted in four stages. First, a suitable silicone additive …

Experimental And Theoretical Investigation Of Mechanical Response Of Laser-Sintered Diamond Lattice Structures, Clayton Neff, Neil Hopkinson, Nathan B. Crane

Faculty Publications

Typically additive manufacturing (AM) processes are limited to a single material per part while many products benefit from the integration of multiple materials with varied properties. To achieve the benefits of multiple materials, the geometric freedom of AM could be used to build internal structures that emulate a range of different material properties such as stiffness, Poisson’s ratio, and elastic limit using only one build material. This paper examines the range of properties that can be simulated using diamond lattice structures manufactured from Nylon 12 with a commercial laser sintering process. Diamond lattices were fabricated with a unit cell length …

Impact Of Extended Sintering Times On Mechanical Properties In Pa-12 Parts Produced By Powderbed Fusion Processes, Garrett Craft, Justin Nussbaum, Nathan B. Crane, J. P. Harmon

Faculty Publications

Additive Manufacturing provides many advantages in reduced lead times and increased geometric freedom compared to traditional manufacturing methods, but material properties are often reduced. This paper considers powder bed fusion of polyamide 12 (PA12, Nylon 12) produced by three different processes: laser sintering (LS), multijet fusion (MJF)/high speed sintering (HSS), and large area projection sintering (LAPS). While all utilize similar PA12 materials, they are found to differ significantly in mechanical properties especially in elongation to break. The slower heating methods (MJF/HSS and LAPS) produce large elongation at break with the LAPS process showing 10x elongation and MJF/HSS exhibiting 2.5x the …

Impact Of Vapor Polishing On Surface Quality And Mechanical Properties Of Extruded Abs, Clayton Neff, Matthew Trapuzzano, Nathan B. Crane

Faculty Publications

Purpose — Additive manufacturing (AM) is readily capable of producing models and prototypes of complex geometry and is advancing in creating functional parts. However, AM processes typically underperform traditional manufacturing methods in mechanical properties, surface roughness, and hermeticity. Solvent vapor treatments (vapor polishing) are commonly used to improve surface quality in thermoplastic parts, but the results are poorly characterized.

Design/methodology/approach — This work quantifies the surface roughness change and also evaluates the effect on hermeticity and mechanical property impacts for “as-printed” and acetone vapor-polished ABS tensile specimens of 1, 2, and 4 mm thicknesses produced by material extrusion (FDM).

Findings …

Crack Healing In 304l Stainless Steel Using Additive Manufacturing And Friction Stir Processing (Fsp), Cameron Scott Gygi

Theses and Dissertations

Continuing an investigation on using FSP to heal stress corrosion cracks (SCC) in welds on nuclear reactors, this study seeks to use AM in addition to FSP to aid crack repair. Previous studies address that current repair technology on nuclear reactors involves the use of TIG welding which can allow helium atoms to aggregate and form voids at the grain boundaries. This weakens the material and renders the repair ineffective. Another previous study evaluated the effectiveness of FSP alone in repairing SCC which did have defects depending on the parameters used during FSP. This study evaluated the use of AM …

Stress-Limiting Test Structures For Rapid Low-Cost Strength And Stiffness Assessment, Andrew Katz, Craig P. Lusk, Nathan B. Crane

Faculty Publications

Purpose: Evaluate the use of a simple printed geometry to estimate mechanical properties (elastic modulus, yield strength) with inexpensive test equipment.

Design Methodology/Approach: Test geometry is presented that enables controlled strains with manual deformation and repeatable measurement of vibrational frequencies. This is tested with multiple FDM machines to assess measurement accuracy and repeatability. Printing orientation and some printing parameters are varied to assess the measurement sensitivity.

Findings: The test methods show good correlation with manufacturer material specifications in the X-Y plane and reported elastic strain limits. It is also sensitive to printing orientation and printing parameters.

Research Limitations/Implications: Further work …