Abstract: Within Rapid Prototyping technologies are used many
types of materials. Many of them are recyclable but there are still as
plastic like, so practically they do not degrade in the landfill.
Polylactic acid (PLA) is one of the special plastic materials, which
are biodegradable and available for 3D printing within Fused
Deposition Modeling (FDM) technology. The question is, if the
mechanical properties of produced models are comparable to similar
technical plastic materials which are usual for prototype production.
Presented paper shows the experiments results for tensile strength
measurements for specimens prepared with different 3D printer
settings and model orientation. Paper contains also the comparison of
tensile strength values with values measured on specimens produced
by conventional technologies as injection moulding.
Abstract: When printing a plate (or dish) by an FDM 3D printer,
the process normally requires support material, which causes several
problems. This paper proposes a method for forming thin plates
without using wasteful support material. This method requires several
extraordinary parameter values when slicing plates. The experiments
show that the plates can, for the most part, be successfully formed
using a conventional slicer and a 3D printer; however, seams between
layers spoil them and the quality of printed objects strongly depends
on the slicer.
Abstract: The 3D printing is a combination of digital technology, material science, intelligent manufacturing and control of opto-mechatronics systems. It is called the third industrial revolution from the view of the Economist Journal. A color 3D printing machine may provide the necessary support for high value-added industrial and commercial design, architectural design, personal boutique, and 3D artist’s creation. The main goal of this paper is to develop photo-curable color 3D manufacturing technology and system implementation. The key technologies include (1) Photo-curable color 3D additive manufacturing processes development and materials research (2) Piezo type ink-jet head control and Opto-mechatronics integration technique of the photo-curable color 3D laminated manufacturing system. The proposed system is integrated with single Piezo type ink-jet head with two individual channels for two primary UV light curable color resins which can provide for future colorful 3D printing solutions. The main research results are 16 grey levels and grey resolution of 75 dpi.
Abstract: Objects are usually horizontally sliced when printed by 3D printers. Therefore, if an object to be printed, such as a collection of fibers, originally has natural direction in shape, the printed direction contradicts with the natural direction. By using proper tools, such as field-oriented 3D paint software, field-oriented solid modelers, field-based tool-path generation software, and non-horizontal FDM 3D printers, the natural direction can be modeled and objects can be printed in a direction that is consistent with the natural direction. This consistence results in embodiment of momentum or force in expressions of the printed object. To achieve this goal, several design and manufacturing problems, but not all, have been solved. An application of this method is (Japanese) 3D calligraphy.
Abstract: Environmental impacts of six 3D printers using
various materials were compared to determine if material choice
drove sustainability, or if other factors such as machine type, machine
size, or machine utilization dominate. Cradle-to-grave life-cycle
assessments were performed, comparing a commercial-scale FDM
machine printing in ABS plastic, a desktop FDM machine printing in
ABS, a desktop FDM machine printing in PET and PLA plastics, a
polyjet machine printing in its proprietary polymer, an SLA machine
printing in its polymer, and an inkjet machine hacked to print in salt
and dextrose. All scenarios were scored using ReCiPe Endpoint H
methodology to combine multiple impact categories, comparing
environmental impacts per part made for several scenarios per
machine. Results showed that most printers’ ecological impacts were
dominated by electricity use, not materials, and the changes in
electricity use due to different plastics was not significant compared
to variation from one machine to another. Variation in machine idle
time determined impacts per part most strongly. However, material
impacts were quite important for the inkjet printer hacked to print in
salt: In its optimal scenario, it had up to 1/38th the impacts coreper
part as the worst-performing machine in the same scenario. If salt
parts were infused with epoxy to make them more physically robust,
then much of this advantage disappeared, and material impacts
actually dominated or equaled electricity use. Future studies should
also measure DMLS and SLS processes / materials.
Abstract: Rapid Prototyping (RP) is a technology that produces models and prototype parts from 3D CAD model data, CT/MRI scan data, and model data created from 3D object digitizing systems. There are several RP process like Stereolithography (SLA), Solid Ground Curing (SGC), Selective Laser Sintering (SLS), Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM), 3D Printing (3DP) among them SLS and FDM RP processes are used to fabricate pattern of custom cranial implant. RP technology is useful in engineering and biomedical application. This is helpful in engineering for product design, tooling and manufacture etc. RP biomedical applications are design and development of medical devices, instruments, prosthetics and implantation; it is also helpful in planning complex surgical operation. The traditional approach limits the full appreciation of various bony structure movements and therefore the custom implants produced are difficult to measure the anatomy of parts and analyze the changes in facial appearances accurately. Cranioplasty surgery is a surgical correction of a defect in cranial bone by implanting a metal or plastic replacement to restore the missing part. This paper aims to do a comparative study on the dimensional error of CAD and SLS RP Models for reconstruction of cranial defect by comparing the virtual CAD with the physical RP model of a cranial defect.