Feasibility study of ultrasonic frequency application on fdm to improve parts surface finish

© 2015 Penerbit UTM Press. All rights reserved. Fuse Deposition Modeling (FDM) offer several advantages such as less expensive material, lack of expensive lasers and allows complex geometry to be built. However, FDM have limitations such as seam lines appear between layers and excess material residue, leading to surface roughness and poor finish. Ultrasound has been applied in various conventional machining process and shows good machined surface finish. However, from the literature review, it was found there is no investigation made on the application of ultrasound for Additive Manufacturing (AM) especially for FDM. This paper presents an adaptive approach to improve surface finish of FDM sample by applying ultrasonic vibration. The papers discuss the result of the surface finish of test piece printed via a desktop FDM system whereby an ultrasound device that was securely mounted onto the platform during printing process. Frequency that was used in the experiment is 11, 16 and 21 kHz with acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) material. Optical microscope with the aid of pro VIS software version 2.90 was used to measure the surface roughness of the four samples printed with a vibration in the above specified frequency. It was found that a 21 kHz frequency applied to the FDM process achieved the best surface finish due to less surface defects found and thickness had finer layers being produced. The results from this study could potentially be applied to other AM system such as the selective laser sintering, electron beam machining and stereolithography. The new data on effects of ultrasonic FDM technique and machining parameter for achieving improved surface finish has potential benefit to be used in various industries such as automotive, consumer, medical, sports, etc to produce prototypes or customized end used product or part. The data will benefit in term of product design and development elimination of manual post processing. Further study that could be done is to use different types of material such as polyactic acid (PLA) or composite material

Experimental Setup for Ultrasonic-Assisted Desktop Fused Deposition Modeling System

Fused deposition modeling (FDM) is an additive manufacturing (AM) process that has been used in various manufacturing fields. However, the drawback of FDM is poor surface finish of part produced, leading to surface roughness and requires hand finishing. In this study, ultrasonic technology will be integrated into a desktop FDM system. Ultrasound has been applied in various conventional machining process and shows good machined surface finish. However, very little research regarding the application of ultrasound to AM has been carried out. Our previous research found that the extrusion nozzle of the FDM system could withstand the high vibration transmitted at 40 kHz of frequency from an ultrasonic transducer. The aim of this paper is to discusses three novel setups of using ultrasound devices attached to a desktop FDM system to study its feasibility to improve the surface finish of parts. A comparative study was made and it was found that the second setup (Concept 2) was most suitable due to its safe and reliability aspects.Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melak

Analysis of Applying Ultrasonic Frequency on a Desktop FDM Nozzle

Fused deposition modeling (FDM) is an Additive Manufacturing (AM) that allows a designer or engineer discloses a desired shape by simply drawing a design on the computer. It is also the most economical AM process. Despite these advantages, it has the biggest drawback that it requires post processing to produce a good surface finish of parts produce. This research studies the application of ultrasonic to a desktop FDM system. The idea is to transmit high vibration from the ultrasonic transducer to the FDM system particularly on the nozzle. However, the idea has yet to be proven. This paper aims to examine whether the FDM nozzle is able to withstand the high vibration transmitted. The project was carried out using a CAD and ANSYS software. The CAD software is used to develop a 3-dimensional model and the ANSYS software is used to perform static and vibration analysis. 20 kHz to 30 kHz and 30 kHz to 40 kHz vibrations were applied. From the results of the analysis, the FDM can stand up to 40 kHz of frequency of vibration to the FDM nozzle. In addition, the lowest Factor of Safety obtained is 18.8975. Thus, it can be concluded that the nozzle of FDM can withstand the high vibration transmitted from the ultrasonic transducer

Minor Product Polymerization Causes Failure of High-Current CO2-to-Ethylene Electrolyzers

Flooding of gas diffusion electrodes (GDEs) used in electrochemical conversion of CO2 to ethylene is caused by polymerization of minor products. The polymer so created reduces the hydrophobicity of the GDE, leading initially to a reduction in the ethylene yield and finally to complete failure