Application of Polymer Plaster Composites in Additive Manufacturing of High-Strength Components

Abstract

Today, 3D-printing with polymer plaster composites is a common method in Additive Manufacturing. This technique has proven to be especially suitable for the production of presentation models, due to the low cost of materials and the possibility to produce color-models. But nowadays it requires refinishing through the manual application of a layer of resin. However, the strength of these printed components is very limited, as the applied resin only penetrates a thin edge layer on the surface. This paper develops a new infiltration technique that allows for a significant increase in the strength of the 3D-printed component. For this process, the components are first dehydrated in a controlled two-tier procedure, before they are then penetrated with high-strength resin. The infiltrate used in this process differs significantly from materials traditionally used for infiltration. The result is an almost complete penetration of the components with high-strength infiltrate. As the whole process is computer-integrated, the results are also easier to reproduce, compared to manual infiltration. On the basis of extensive material testing with different testing specimen and testing methods, it can be demonstrated that a significant increase in strength and hardness can be achieved. Finally, this paper also considers the cost and energy consumption of this new infiltration method. As a result of this new technology, the scope of applicability of 3D-printing can be extended to cases that require significantly more strength, like the production of tools for the shaping of metals or used for the molding of plastics. Furthermore, both the process itself and the parameters used are monitored and can be optimized to individual requirements and different fields of application.

Quality detection of laser additive manufacturing process based on coaxial vision monitoring

“…Various sensors have been developed to detect the forming quality during laser cladding process. Such as infrared image sensing (Junk and Matt, 2015), spectrum sensing (Venekamp and Fever, 2015), opto-electric sensing (Hu and Kovacevic, 2003), pyrometers (Yamane et al , 2007) and vision systems (Song and Mazumder, 2012). Among them, visual sensing technology is gaining more and more attention because it could provide considerable information relating to the forming quality such as temperature, shape and size (Li and Steen, 1990; Kathuria, 2013).…”

Using statistically designed experiment to optimize vacuum-assisted post-processing of binder jetted specimens

“…Aiming to improve strength of binder jetted models, Junk and Matt (2015) proposed an original method involving dehydration of components in a controlled two-tier procedure, upon which the matrix was penetrated with high-strength resin. Using special infiltrate, they achieved an almost complete penetration of the components, which resulted in the increase of mechanical properties of the specimens.…”

“…Vacuum treatment of specimens upon infiltration – used in previous experiments (Maleksaeedi et al , 2014; Junk and Matt, 2015), to enhance penetration of infiltrate mixture into the porous matrix. Of special interest here are the optimum vacuum level and duration of vacuum treatment.…”

“…Based on this literature review, it can be concluded that the studies aimed at improving the infiltration process in binder jetting technology have so far: used conventional materials and methods to explore effects of infiltration on mechanical properties of parts (Frascati, 2007; Gharaie et al , 2013; Impens and Urbanic, 2016; Ocaña et al , 2017); employed additional techniques to enhance mechanical properties of infiltrated parts (Watters and Bernhard, 2017); used non-standard materials in combination with additional techniques (Maleksaeedi, 2014); or resorted to more complex, two-tier approach to infiltration (Suwanprateeb, 2006; Junk and Matt, 2015). …”

“…resorted to more complex, two-tier approach to infiltration (Suwanprateeb, 2006; Junk and Matt, 2015).…”