Engineering Commons^™

Development Of An Automated Ultrasonic Wire Embedding Process For Use With Material Extrusion Additive Manufacturing And Rapid Electronics Fabrication, Nikki L. Martinez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Polymers have been used in Additive Manufacturing (AM) by many industries for rapid prototyping. Parts created using polymer AM however are known to be relatively expensive thus limiting them to small volume production and making them inapplicable for mass production, while their inherent porous and anisotropic properties make them mechanically inferior to parts made using traditional methods such as injection molding. As projects demand more efficient designs, and at the same time ask for more complex features, AM, combined with other manufacturing processes, like Ultrasonic Wire embedding, can streamline and consolidate assemblies. In the realm of composite and multifunctional assemblies, …