Preliminary investigation into metal-material extrusion
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FULL RESEARCH ARTICLE
Preliminary investigation into metal‑material extrusion Shane Terry1 · Ismail Fidan2 · Khalid Tantawi3 Received: 23 November 2019 / Accepted: 14 September 2020 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract Additive manufacturing (AM) technologies provide a method of fabrication that minimizes the production of waste and maximizes part customization. The most common form of this technology is material extrusion (ME) in which material is deposited layer-by-layer to produce a highly customized part. However, this additive production method has experienced difficulty in widespread adoption in metal fabrication due to the inability to produce metallic parts with strong mechanical properties. This study presents some innovations on a new metal-fabrication technique for ME printing that allows for lowcost metal printing. A metal powder polymer composite filament, with a high metal composition, can be printed and sintered to yield a part that is completely metal. Overall, this study provides the initial investigation of the microstructural behavior and the resulting hardness levels. This study found that the metal powder in finished parts is fused by approximately 90% derived from the percent area porosity on a microstructural level. The final hardness of the processed parts is reduced by approximately 60%. Characterizing these properties is the initial step in incorporating ME technology in the field of metal 3D printing. Keywords Additive manufacturing · Metal 3D printing · Metal material extrusion · Microstructure · Hardness · Copper
1 Introduction Additive manufacturing (AM) encompasses a variety of fabrication technologies such as powder bed fusion (PBF), vat polymerization, and material extrusion (ME) [1]. The most commonly utilized method is ME in which a material filament is fed into the extrusion system and heated near the melting temperature of the polymer. The end effector will feed and fuse the new layer of material to the previous one.
* Ismail Fidan [email protected] Shane Terry [email protected] Khalid Tantawi Khalid‑[email protected] 1
Department of Mechanical Engineering and Center for Manufacturing Research, College of Engineering, Tennessee Technological University, Cookeville, USA
2
Department of Manufacturing and Engineering Technology, College of Engineering, Tennessee Technological University, Cookeville, USA
3
Department of Engineering Management and Technology, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Chattanooga, USA
The overall ME process of forming parts through layered material extrusion is demonstrated in Fig. 1 [2]. By fabricating metal parts via ME, the ease of operation, safety, and waste reduction are all greatly improved. This unique form of fabrication has allowed for opportunities in biological [3], automotive [4], construction [6, 7], and aerospace printing [7]. One area that is under-researched in AM, especially in comparison to other forms of metal 3D printing (M3DP), is metal ME (MME). Common methods of metal printing are laser s
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