3D Printing

Dr. K. Vivekananda
Assistant Professor
Department of Mechatronics Engineering,
IFHE University, Hyderabad, Telangana, India.
 Introduction
Rapid Prototyping (RP) or 3D Printing is a technology that
produces models and prototype parts from 3D CAD model
data, CT and MRI scan data, and model data created from 3D
object digitizing systems.
- Terry Wohlers

Additive Manufacturing (AM) is new process of joining

materials to make objects from 3D model data, usually layer
upon layer, as opposed to subtractive manufacturing
methodologies.
- ASTM International F42 Committee

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 Introduction
AM Synonyms includes

 Rapid Prototyping

 3D printing

 Additive Manufacturing

 Solid Free Form Fabrication

 Digital Fabrication

 Layer Manufacturing
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 Introduction

http://individual.troweprice.com/staticFiles/Retail/Shared/PDFs/3D_Printing_Infographic_FINAL.pdf

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 Basic Principle
Adding up on Layer by layer

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 Applications of 3D Printing
 Automotive
 Aerospace
 Manufacturing and Tooling
 Medical
 Architectural
 Jewelry
 Miniatures
 Music
 Fashion
 Food Printing
 Museum displays
 Space
 Customer-created Products
What are 3D Printing Parts Used for?
 The initial models were used to help fully
appreciate the shape and general purpose of a
design (Form).

 Improved accuracy in the process meant that

components were capable of being built to the
tolerances required for assembly purposes (Fit).

 Improved material properties meant that parts

could be properly handled so that they could be
assessed according to how they would eventually
work (Function).

 Furthermore, use of high-power laser technology

has meant that parts can now also be directly
made in a variety of metals, thus extending the
application range even further.
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 The Benefits of 3D Printing
• Rapid technology: The speeding up of the whole
product development process relies much on the fact
that we are using computers.

• Reduction in process steps: Regardless of the

complexity of parts to be built, building within an 3D
Printing machine is generally performed in a single
step.

• Reduced tooling costs : The number of processes

and resources required can be significantly reduced
when using 3D Printing.

• New design opportunities. It can be possible to

manufacture a vast range of different parts with
different characteristics.

• Lower material costs:

• Low-volume production. 8
The Generic 3D Printing Process chain

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 3D Printing file formats
 STL. .STL is the most common file format

 .OBJ. .OBJ is the second most common file format

 .VRML

 .AMF

 .3MF

 .gcode

 .X3G
 3D Printing file formats
STL File Format
 As of today, STereoLithography (STL) is the undisputed champion
among 3D printer file formats. STL’s history goes back to the
invention of 3D printing itself.

 The first 3D printer was invented by Chuck Hull (Charles W. Hull) in

1987 at 3D Systems. The same guy was behind the STL file format.

 STL is globally accepted file format for 3D Printers

 3D Printing file formats
STL File Format
Polygons Divide into Triangles

4 sides  2 5 sides  3 8 sides  6

An n-gon is represented as n-2 triangles

 3D Printing file formats
STL File Format

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3D Printing processes
Vat Photopolymerization Processes
Most photopolymers react to radiation in the ultraviolet (UV) range of
wavelengths, but some visible light systems are used as well. Upon
irradiation, these materials undergo a chemical reaction to become solid,
this reaction is called photopolymerization.

In the mid-1980s, Charles (Chuck) Hull was experimenting with UV

curable materials by exposing them to a scanning laser, similar to the
system found in laser printers.

He discovered that solid polymer patterns could be produced. By curing

one layer over a previous layer, he could fabricate a solid 3D part.

This was the beginning of stereolithography (SL) technology. The

company 3D Systems was created shortly thereafter to market SL
machines as “rapid prototyping” machines to the product development
industry.

3D Systems founded 1986 – World’s first 3D printing company 16

Approaches to photopolymerization processes

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 Material extrusion Process
• Material extrusion technology was first developed in the 1980s by S.
Scott Crump under the registered name of fused deposition modelling
(FDM).
• The technology was developed and patented in 1980’s. Later on, Crump
started a company – Stratasys in 1988 which trademarked the term
“Fused Deposition Modelling”.

• Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) is a term coined by RepRap project

which is an open source project for development of low-cost and
affordable desktop 3D printers.

• This community driven project supplies Free and Open Source

Hardware (FOSH) 3D printers. It is the result of successful attempts of
RepRap project that the 3D printers which used to cost no less than
$20,000 can now be assembled at affordable price of $1000 or less.

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 Material extrusion Process
• There are a number of key features that
are common to any extrusion-based
system:
– Loading of material
– Liquification of the material
– Application of pressure to move the
material through the nozzle
– Extrusion
– Plotting according to a predefined
path and in a controlled manner
– Bonding of the material to itself or
secondary build materials to form a
coherent solid structure
– Inclusion of support structures to
enable complex geometrical features
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 Powder Bed Fusion Process
 The PBF process begins with the creation of a 3D CAD model, which
is numerically 'sliced' into several discrete layers.
 A hopper supplies the powdered material which is then spread
uniformly over the powder bed build platform area via a roller or blade.
 The each layer of spread powder is dependent on the processing
conditions and material used.
 For each layer, a heat source scan path is calculated which defines both
the boundary contour and some form of fill sequence.
 Each layer bonded with the heat source is typically an energy beam
(e.g. a laser).
 PBF processes spread powdered material over the previously joined
layer, ready for processing of the next layer hence the manufacturing is
discrete rather than continuous (though each layer is fully consolidated
to adjacent layers).
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 Binder Jetting Process
• Binder Jetting technology was invented during an MIT project in 1993.
Due to the quality of the results, the American company Z Corporation
acquired it two years later, taking over all rights to this technology.
• It started with plastic materials such as polyamides, and expanded to full-
colour 3D printing and is now reaching the metal AM market.
• Binder jetting (BJ) processes print a binder into a powder bed to fabricate a
part.
• Hence, in BJ, only a small portion of the part material is delivered through
the print head.
• Typically, binder droplets (80 μm in diameter) form spherical agglomerates
of binder liquid and powder particles as well as provide bonding to the
previously printed layer.
• Once a layer is printed, the powder bed is lowered and a new layer of
powder is spread onto it.
• This process (printing binder into bed; recoating bed with new layer of
powder) is repeated until the part, or array of parts, is completed. 25
Binder Jetting Process
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 Material Jetting Process
Material-Jet-Printing is a process from 3D Systems and was
commercialized in 1996 which had a few different trade names like
Thermojet and MJM.

Then in 1998 Polyjet technology was developed by Objet, a company

based in Israel which later merged with Stratasys in 2012.

Material Jetting (MJ) is an additive manufacturing process that operates in

a similar fashion to 2D printers.

In material jetting, a print head (similar to the print heads used for standard
inkjet printing) dispenses droplets of a photosensitive material that
solidifies under ultraviolet (UV) light, building a part layer-by-layer.

The materials used in MJ are thermoset photopolymers (acrylics) that come

in a liquid form.
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Material Jetting Process
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 Sheet Lamination Process
 Laminated Object Manufacturing (LOM). LOM involved layer-by-layer
lamination of paper material sheets, cut using a CO2 laser, each sheet
representing one cross sectional layer of the CAD model of the part.
 In LOM, the portion of the paper sheet which is not contained within the
final part is sliced into cubes of material using a crosshatch cutting
operation.

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 Directed Energy Deposition Process
Directed energy deposition (DED) processes enable the creation of
parts by melting material as it is being deposited.

Although this basic approach can work for polymers, ceramics, and
metal matrix composites, it is predominantly used for metal powders.

DED processes use a focused heat source (typically a laser or electron

beam) to melt the feedstock material and build up three-dimensional
objects in a manner similar to the extrusion-based processes.

Each pass of the DED head creates a track of solidified material, and
adjacent lines of material make up layers.

Complex three-dimensional geometry requires either support material

or a multi-axis deposition head.
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Directed Energy Deposition Process
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 Support Material Removal
The most common type of post-processing in AM is support
removal. Support material can be broadly classified into two
categories:

(a) Material which surrounds the part as a naturally-occurring by-

product of the build process (natural supports), and

(b) Rigid structures which are designed and built to support,

restrain or attach the part being built to a build platform
(synthetic supports).
 Natural Support Post-Processing
• In processes where the part being built is fully encapsulated in the build
material, the part must be removed from the surrounding material prior to
its use.
• Processeswhich provide natural supports are primarily powder-based and
sheet-based processes.
• Brushes, compressed air, and light bead blasting are commonly used to
remove loosely adhered powder; whereas, wood-working tools and dental
cleaning tools are commonly used to remove powders which have
sintered to the surface or powder entrapped in small channels or features.
• Internalcavities and hollow spaces can be difficult to clean and may
require significant post-processing time.
• In
most cases, parts made using binder printing are brittle out of the
machine.
 Synthetic Support Removal
In some cases, such as when using PBF techniques for metals, synthetic
supports are also required to resist distortion. Synthetic supports can be
made from the build material or from a secondary material.
The development of secondary support materials was a key step in
simplifying the removal of synthetic supports as these materials are either
weaker, soluble in a liquid solution, or melt at a lower temperature than the
build material.

Flat FDM-produced aerospace part. White build material is ABS plastic and black material is the water-soluble
WaterWorksTM support material. (Courtesy of Shapeways. Design by Nathan Yo Han Wheatley.)
 Synthetic Support Removal
• The orientation of a part with respect to the primary build axis significantly
affects support generation and removal.
• The orientation of supports also affects the surface finish of the part, as support
removal typically leaves “witness marks” (small bumps or divots) where the
supports were attached.

Breakaway support removal for (a) an FDM part (courtesy of Jim Flowers) and (b) an SLA part.
(Courtesy Worldwide Guide to Rapid Prototyping web-site. (C) Copyright Castle Island Co., All
rights reserved. Photo provided by Cadem A.S., Turkey)
Text Book for 3D Printing Chapters
Ian Gibson, David W Rosen, Brent Stucker, Additive
Manufacturing Technologies: 3D Printing, Rapid Prototyping, and
Direct Digital Manufacturing, Springer, 2nd Edition, 2015
Thanking you
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