Optimisation of standard Aluminium alloy
and FDM technique for miniature castings
PRAGADEESH RAMU, SRI MUGUNDAN V,
Final year Students,
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
S.A. Engineering College, Chennai, India.
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About FDM technology
▫ Fused Deposition Modeling is an additive manufacturing
process that belongs to the material extrusion family
▫ In FDM, an object is built by selectively depositing melted
material in a pre-determined path layer-by-layer
▫ The materials used are thermoplastic polymers and come
in a filament form
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Polylactic Acid
properties
Melting point : 180 degree Celsius
Density : 1.210–1.430 g·cm−3
Filament diameter : 1.75mm
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Overhanging structures
Challenges in
FDM
Requires support
structures leading to :
• Increased printing
time
• Wastage of material
• Poor surface finish
Over hanging structure prevention through design
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• Operating temperatures
Common • Extrusion temperature
defects in FDM • Substrate temperature
• Print speed
• Extrusion rate
• Printer calibration
• Placement of the print platform and position nozzle
• Nozzle clogging
• Disrupted material flow
• Loss of adhesion to the print platform,
• Vibration
• Inaccurate adjustments of printer settings
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Bed Adhesion
Cause and effects
• The bed surface (PET
tape, glass, or other
types)
• The material you are
printing in (PLA, ABS,
Nylon)
• And the substrate
temperature
DEFECTS IN FDM TECHNOLOGY
Elmer’s Adhesion glue Under extrusion Intermediate fusion shock
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Disrupted material flow
Snapped Filament
Filament knot
Stripped Filament
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Incorrectly Levelled Bed
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Nozzle block
Nozzle shear on Bed
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Influence of NOZZLE geometry
TYPE D TYPE B
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• Intermediate fusion shock
Unexplored
areas • Rapid gas expansion in PLA filament
• Deposition on and without touching the
build plate
• Nozzle geometry
• Extrusion body assembly
NOZZLE GEOMETRY
TYPE A TYPE B TYPE C TYPE D
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EXTRUSION BODY ASSEMBLY
Extrusion body length
Modified body length
Gas expansion in track
leading to popping & gap
in print
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CURA UI
Optimization by tweaking
control parameters
Pronterface UI
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% DENSITY VS STRENGTH % DENSITY VS SPEED
LAYERS VS
NUMBER OF LAYERS VS COST QUALITY
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Rapid Tooling
Application of
our work
Match Plate Mould
Printing Making
Casting
AC4B CHEMICAL COMPOSITION
Symbol
of type
Cu Si Mg Zn Fe Mn Ni Ti Pb Sn Cr Al
2.0 7.0 Rem
AC4B 0.50 1.0 1.0 0.50 0.35 0.20 0.20 0.10 0.20
to to ainde
max. max. max. max. max. max. max. max. max.
4.0 10.0 r
Symbol
Cu Si Mg Zn Fe Mn Mg Ti Pb Sn Cr Al
of type
Rem
0.2 7.5 0.45 0.1 0.2 0.1 0.20 0.20 0.10 0.20
AC4B 0.45 ainde
max max max max max max max. max. max. max.
r
Tensile Test Sample Specification Tensile Test Sample Location
All samples assumed to be cut to “Sub size Specimen” dimensions from the ASTM E8 Standard
Location 1 Location 2
SPECIMEN INTERFACE LONGITUDINAL FRONT FACE
RESULT COMPARISON
Filling temperature with uniform even gradient
Solidification Result
Porosity Result
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CONCLUSION
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Thanks!
Curious to hear your questions
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Credits
We would like to thank the management and
organizers of Madras Institute of Technology
for granting us this opportunity