Part strength improvement in polymer shape deposition manufacturing

Abstract

Shape deposition manufacturing (SDM) is a layered manufacturing process which iteratively combines material addition and removal to create artifacts in a variety of materials. Castable thermoset resins have been used to build a variety of parts via polymer SDM. The strength of these parts is determined by the bulk material properties of the part materials and by their interlayer adhesion. Early polyurethane materials had high bulk strength but poor interlayer adhesion, resulting in weak multilayer parts. Interlayer strength improvements were achieved through additional processing steps or the use of different polyurethane and epoxy part materials. These improvements allowed the fabrication of aerodynamic flap mechanisms used in wind‐tunnel testing. These parts are examples of the intricate, functional mechanisms to which the polymer SDM process is ideally suited.

Citation

Kietzman, J., Park, B. and Prinz, F. (2001), "Part strength improvement in polymer shape deposition manufacturing", Rapid Prototyping Journal, Vol. 7 No. 3, pp. 130-137. https://doi.org/10.1108/13552540110395529