<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify">The additive manufacturing is one of the most advanced manufacturing, prototyping, and tooling method. There are several additive manufacturing technologies available in the market, but extrusion based additive manufacturing is most popular due to low cost and simple open-source design. Tthere are two methods to 3D print a part using extrusion based additive manufacturing technology namely - filament based and pellets/granules based. Filament based extrusion needed a wire form material called filament, which is pushed by a motor and gear mechanism, into a heating zone. In heating zone, it converts in semi-solid form and extruded out of nozzle to deposit in layer over layer manner. This extrusion strategy needed a non-flexible filament, so it limits the variety of material. Converting material into wire form also increases the cost of 3D printing. Pellet based extrusion accepts the material in granules form. It is fed into heating zone using an extrusion screw. This technology can accept a wide range of materials and eliminate the cost of producing filament. But pellet-based technology is still not being used on 3D printers, on the other hand filament-based technology in the form 3D printer is very popular in the market. So, in this study development of noble pellet and filament form integrated multi-material additive manufacturing co-extruder has been presented. The developed co-extruder is capable to accept material in filament form as well as pellet/granules form. This will help to 3D print a particular part with several materials. This hybrid form of extruder is accommodating the features of above both types of extrusion based additive manufacturing. As per need, one can easily shift from filament extrusion to pellet/granules extrusion using this co-extruder. The developed co-extruder will help to fabricate the part with desired properties on a particular layer. Colour and mechanical properties of a layer could be altered by just feeding the pellets/granules with these desired properties. This system may provide flexibility to print the part from a composite material by processing two different feed materials. One of the important applications of the developed extruder is to recycle the polymer waste generated from various sources along with waste generated from failed 3D printed parts. This application will reduce the extrusion-based 3D printing cost significantly. &nbsp;The Compact size and low weight were kept in mind while designing this system. Modular design of this co-extruder makes it compatible with all the 3D printers available in the market with little modification in holding brackets.</p>

Development of a Pellet and Filament Form Integrated Multi-Material Additive Manufacturing Co-Extruder

Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/IMECE/IMECE2021/volume/85543

ASME 2021 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition (IMECE2021)

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