Additive Manufacturing (AM) of metals is a potentially disruptive technology that could significantly change the value chain in industries such as aerospace, automotive, tool-manufacturing, and medical industry. A few AM methods can create metal parts, mainly utilizing powder bed fusion such as (Selective Laser Sintering, SLS, Selective laser Melting, SLM, and Electron Beam Melting, EBM). Many challenges though exist in the powder bed fusion processes, due to thermal stresses within the printed parts, operator burden in completing the build process, and overall cost of the equipment. Binder Jet 3D printing utilizes inkjet technology to selectively deposit binder into a powder bed and it exhibits significant potential for metal AM. One challenge that limits binder jetting technology is its green part strength, which limits application of the process due to broken parts and geometric inflexibility. The research presented here introduces a new binder system utilizing a difunctional monomer binder. This monomer when heated polymerizes and holds the structure of the printed green part before sintering. The novel binder successfully increases the strength of the green part and allows more flexibility in geometric design. This presentation summarizes efforts on optimizing various parameters including viscosity, surface tension, solution composition, drop size, curing temperature and time with respect to the new binder system.

Novel binder development in binder jet additive manufacturing to improve green part strength

255th National Meeting (2018)

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