Rate limits of additive manufacturing by fused filament fabrication and guidelines for high-throughput system design

Go, Jamison; Schiffres, Scott N.; Stevens, Adam G.; Hart, A. John

doi:10.1016/j.addma.2017.03.007

Cited by 131 publications

(135 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…The result is that part complexity has almost no effect on the process rate for laser processes, but can noticeably slow down extrusion processes for complex shapes. See Baumers and colleagues () and Go and colleagues ().…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Note on the Rate and Energy Efficiency Limits for Additive Manufacturing

Gutowski

Jiang

Cooper

et al. 2017

J of Industrial Ecology

115

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SummaryWe review the process rates and energy intensities of various additive processing technologies and focus on recent progress in improving these metrics for laser powder bed fusion processing of metals, and filament and pellet extrusion processing of polymers and composites. Over the last decade, observed progress in raw build rates has been quite substantial, with laser metal processes improving by about 1 order of magnitude, and polymer extrusion processes by more than 2 orders of magnitude. We develop simple heat transfer models that explain these improvements, point to other possible strategies for improvement, and highlight rate limits. We observe a pattern in laser metal technologies that mimics the development of machine tools; an efficiency plateau, where faster rates require more power with no change in energy nor rate efficiency.

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mentioning

confidence: 99%

Note on the Rate and Energy Efficiency Limits for Additive Manufacturing

Gutowski

Jiang

Cooper

et al. 2017

J of Industrial Ecology

115

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“…In commercial desktop and professional FFF systems, the filament is advanced using a pinchwheel mechanism, whose force capability is limited by the depth of grooves imprinted into the smooth filament by the textured drive wheel, which in turn determines the area of traction. When the required extrusion force exceeds the shear strength of the polymer over the traction area, the filament fails at the pinchwheel interface, and traction is lost [9]. As a result, FFF extrusion mechanisms operate at a fraction of their maximum force capacity, and the low transmission ratio between the rotation rate of the pinchwheel mechanism and the exit velocity of the filament (due to the significant area reduction of the nozzle) limits the fidelity and performance of extrusion rate.…”

Section: Nut-feed Filament Drivementioning

confidence: 99%

Fast Desktop-Scale Extrusion Additive Manufacturing

Hart

2017

Additive Manufacturing

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Significant improvements to the production rate of additive manufacturing (AM) technologies are essential to their cost-effectiveness and competitiveness with traditional processing routes. Moreover, much faster AM processes, in combination with the geometric versatility of AM, will enable entirely new workflows for product design and customization. We present the design and validation of a desktop-scale extrusion AM system that achieves far greater build rate than benchmarked commercial systems. This system, which we call 'FastFFF', is motivated by our recent analysis of the rate-limiting mechanisms to conventional fused filament fabrication (FFF) technology. The FastFFF system mutually overcomes these limits, using a nut-feed extruder, laser-heated polymer liquefier, and servo-driven parallel gantry system to achieve high extrusion force, rapid filament heating, and fast gantry motion, respectively. The extrusion and heating mechanisms are contained in a compact printhead that receives a threaded filament and augments conduction heat transfer with a fiber-coupled diode laser. The prototype system achieves a volumetric build rate of ~127 cm 3 /hr, which is ~7-fold greater than commercial desktop FFF systems, at comparable resolution; the maximum extrusion rate of the printhead is ~14-fold greater (282 cm 3 /hr). The performance limits of the printhead and motion systems are characterized, and the tradeoffs between build rate and resolution are assessed and discussed. The combination of high-speed motion and high deposition rate achieved by the FastFFF technology also poses challenges and opportunities for toolpath optimization and real-time deposition control. High-speed desktop printing raises the possibility of new use cases and business models for AM-where handheld parts are built in minutes rather than hours. Adaptation of this system to high-temperature thermoplastics and filled composite resins, which require high extrusion forces, is also of interest.

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“…The need to improve performance in systems based on AM and to develop new technology leads us to reconsider the approach to projecting, designing and manufacturing these machines, the control systems, sensor system and movement strategies [4]. In fact, automated machine design is based not only on science and technology, but also on the art of integrating devices originally designed for other and differing purposes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mechatronic Design for an Extrusion-Based Additive Manufacturing Machine

2017

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3D printers, especially in the implementation of innovative extrusion processes which do not have a long history of development, are often built by adapting mechanical designs, drives and controls previously developed for generic machine tools. This is done through a process of choice and integration which is based principally on empirical criteria and taking into account separately the different aspects and parameters. Hereafter, we present an integrated mechatronic approach which has been adopted to design from the scratch a machine to implement the innovative metal injection moulding (MIM) technology. Its extrusion rate involves the adaptation of the generated trajectories and consequently requires "ad hoc" designs, drives and numerical controls (NC) to enable non standard acceleration (and hence torque) setpoint curves. Overall, the project resulted in an acceptable workspace volume (depending on the number of degrees of freedom of the platform) and allows one to combine the extruder flow rate, the given accuracy and the required working speed (1 m/s). The system is currently used as a test bench for exploring and optimizing the parameter space of a new MIM process.

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Rate limits of additive manufacturing by fused filament fabrication and guidelines for high-throughput system design

Cited by 131 publications

References 7 publications

Note on the Rate and Energy Efficiency Limits for Additive Manufacturing

Note on the Rate and Energy Efficiency Limits for Additive Manufacturing

Fast Desktop-Scale Extrusion Additive Manufacturing

Mechatronic Design for an Extrusion-Based Additive Manufacturing Machine

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