Title: Quality assurance in additive manufacturing of thermoplastic parts: predicting consolidation degree based on thermal profile

Authors: Mriganka Roy; Olga Wodo

Addresses: Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, USA ' Material Design and Innovation, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, USA

Abstract: Additive manufacturing is one of the most prominent and promising technologies in the field of manufacturing. However, its current dissemination is largely limited to the prototyping role due to inadequate quality assurance. The detailed process-geometry-property relationships are still to be unveiled, despite AM being a highly repetitive process. In this work, we aim to address this gap of insight by leveraging a numerical approach in predicting the thermal behaviour of the deposition to quantify the properties of the printed part. In particular, we present a prediction of the consolidation strength in fused filament fabrication. The proposed protocol is universal and can be applied to any deposition condition and geometry. This contribution has important implication for prefabrication quality assurance in AM as it allows to link process parameters with part properties for any geometry hence opening new avenues for process optimisation.

Keywords: quality assurance; additive manufacturing; fused filament fabrication; finite element method; reptation; consolidation; bonding; thermoplastics.

DOI: 10.1504/IJRAPIDM.2019.102530

International Journal of Rapid Manufacturing, 2019 Vol.8 No.4, pp.285 - 301

Received: 02 Jan 2018
Accepted: 07 Jun 2018
Published online: 30 Sep 2019 *

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