multi-material 3d printing with incompatible materials · 5/20/2020 · also be applied to fully...
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Graduation Project Master Integrated Product Design
Multi-material 3D printing with incompatible materials
Background Multi-extrusion fused deposition modeling (FDM) machines, such as the Ultimaker 3, enable fabrication with multiple (at least two) different materials. Compared to single-material 3D printers, they offer more possibilities for design, as you can combine two build materials that have different properties into one object. For example, it is possible print parts with rigid and flexible regions, or combine materials with different colors or transparency.
If the two materials don't bond together chemically, they are said to be incompatible. During printing non-bonding materials can cause printing failure, as parts can start to shift with respect to each other. There are only few printable material combinations that are compatible, which limits the possibilities that multi-extrusion FDM offers for design. Certain combinations of incompatible materials that would be useful to apply in product design currently not achievable with 3D printing. Mechanical interlocking structures have shown to create reliable bonding of the otherwise incompatible (cast) silicone and (3D printed) PLA. Preliminary tests indicate that this principle may also be applied to fully 3D printed parts. Your assignment To develop a new approach to facilitate multi-material FDM 3D printing with incompatible materials, which is ready for implementation in Cura (Ultimaker’s slicer). The approach encompasses various aspects of the 3D print workflow. 1) The slicer, which transforms a boundary representation to layers of extruded material, 2) the gcode, which contains the instructions for the machine, and 3) the resulting 3D printed geometry (and its physical properties). Interested? Let us know before June 5 2020
Supervisory team Chair Zjenja Doubrovski [email protected]
Mentor Tim Kuipers [email protected]
Treefrog by Nervous System: a two-color FDM 3D printed object
Silicone and PLA bonded with a mechanical interlocking structure
FDM 3D printed object made with incompatible PP and ABS