Rapid prototyping and physical modelling in the development of a new additive manufacturing process for aluminium alloys

Abstract

In this work, rapid prototyping and physical modelling are used to evaluate four different extruder and deposition concepts for the Hybrid Metal Extrusion & Bonding (HYB) additive manufacturing (AM) process for aluminium alloys. The HYB-AM process is a branch of the HYB joining technology and is currently utilizing an extruder design that was initially developed for welding purposes. However, due to the different operating conditions of an AM process compared to a welding process, it is of interest to compare the current extruder to that of other alternatives to identify the optimal design. Plastic models of the different extruders have been produced by rapid prototyping and attached to a CNC-machine. To test the performance of each design, plasticine has been processed through the extruders and deposited on the machine bed. Key learnings from each cycle of designing, building and testing have been used as inputs for the next iteration, to finally end up with a design and the associated requirements upon which the further development process will be based.