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Michigan Technological University

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Full-Text Articles in Mechanical Engineering

Open Source Multi-Head 3d Printer For Polymer-Metal Composite Component Manufacturing, J. Laureto, Joshua M. Pearce Jun 2017

Open Source Multi-Head 3d Printer For Polymer-Metal Composite Component Manufacturing, J. Laureto, Joshua M. Pearce

Department of Materials Science and Engineering Publications

As low-cost desktop 3D printing is now dominated by free and open source self-replicating rapid prototype (RepRap) derivatives, there is an intense interest in extending the scope of potential applications to manufacturing. This study describes a manufacturing technology that enables a constrained set of polymer-metal composite components. This paper provides (1) free and open source hardware and (2) software for printing systems that achieves metal wire embedment into a polymer matrix 3D-printed part via a novel weaving and wrapping method using (3) OpenSCAD and parametric coding for customized g-code commands. Composite parts are evaluated from the technical viability of manufacturing …