Rapid manufacturing facilitation through optimal machining prediction of polystyrene foam

Abstract

The findings reported in this paper provide a model for consistently achieving optimal cutting conditions when shaping foam plastic, such as polystyrene, with an electrically heated wire-based cutting tool. General relationships between wire temperature, power input, feed-rate, kerf width and work piece material composition were developed and an optimal machining algorithm was proposed and tested. The findings provide a significant advancement toward a fully automated machining facility and the associated development of a novel, large scale rapid manufacturing (RM) system.

Influence on Kerf Width in Machining Polystyrene by Heating Element Profile Maker using Nichrome Wire

“…David r. Aitchison, Hadley L. brooks, Joseph D. Bain and Dirk Pons (2010) studied the "Rapid manufacturing facilitation through optimal machining prediction of polystyrene foam". In this general relationships between wire temperature, power input, feedrate, kerf width and work piece material composition were developed and an optimal machining algorithm was proposed and tested [4]. David Aitchison, Hadley Brooks, Joe Bain, Dirk Pons, "The Investigation into the prediction of optimal machining conditions for polystyrene foam cut with a taut hot-wire".…”

“…Where the units of Q, I and R, are power (Watt), current (Ampere) and resistance (ohm) respectively [4]. In the case of hot-wire the heat generated can be defined as a linear volumetric heat flux as shown in equation 2.…”

“…Where L e represents the length of wire in cut [4]. So that the relationship between the power input and the cutting speed may be shown, the effective heat input is described, as shown in equation (3).…”

“…Where V c is the cutting velocity in m s -1 and Q eff has the units W.s m -2 . Ahn et al from the Korea advanced institute of science and technology (KAIST) carried out a number of experiments investigation the relationship between the effective heat input, cutting speed and kerf width(Ahn et al .2003) [4] The size of the work piece considered for experimentation is in 300mm × 300mm × 350mm. This study investigates the machining characteristics such as material removal rate (MRR).…”