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. 2022 Oct 18;8(10):e11136.
doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e11136. eCollection 2022 Oct.

Production readiness assessment of low cost, multi-material, polymeric 3D printed moulds

Patrich Ferretti  1 , Gian Maria Santi  1 , Christian Leon-Cardenas  1 , Elena Fusari  1 , Mattia Cristofori  1 , Alfredo Liverani  1
Affiliations

Production readiness assessment of low cost, multi-material, polymeric 3D printed moulds

Patrich Ferretti et al. Heliyon. .

Abstract

Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) technology allows to choose a large variety of materials and it is widely used by companies and individuals nowadays. The cost effectiveness of rapid prototyping is achievable via FDM, that makes this technology useful for research and innovation. The application of 3D printing to aid production is the most common approach. Moreover, the use of 3D printing in prototypes result in a waste of material since no reuse is considered. In the following manuscript, this technology is applied to mould fabrication by achieving a low surface roughness at a modest cost compared to conventional manufacturing methods. Moreover, the possibility to use a combination of thermoplastic materials is analysed by examination of the CAD model optimized for Additive Manufacturing (AM) from scratch and was verified using metrology tools. Several moulds were finally built and applied to the specific case study of carbon fibre laminated components. This manuscript aims to analyse the manufacturing process by comparing the mould surface geometry before and after the smoothing process. The achieved tolerance between the produced moulds is ±0.05 mm that ensures the repeatability of the process from an industrial point of view; whilst the deviation between CAD and mould is ±0.2 mm. To combine an accurate FDM process together with chemical smoothing proved to be a powerful strategy to produce high quality components that can be inserted in the production process by means of traditional manufacturing techniques. This will aid to reduce the cost of standard manufacturing for low production batches and prototypes of carbon fibre composites.

Keywords: Carbon fibre mould; Chemical smoothing; FDM; Multimaterial FDM; PLA; PVB; Vapor smoothing.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Process workflow starts from the design of the object, passing through the mould design, the mould fabrication, until the manufacturing of the carbon fibre component.
Figure 2
Figure 2
2D drawing of the fuel tap protection with the main dimension and isometric view for the Husqvarna tc85 MY 2022.
Figure 3
Figure 3
CAD model of the two parts of the mould, the PLA part in white and the PVB part in light green.
Figure 4
Figure 4
CAD model of the two parts assembly.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Seams position for the PVB part.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Preview of the created G-code inside Ultimaker Cura.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Initial layers of the FDM mould at the top, the final result at the bottom.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Position of the moulds during the three 20-minute smoothing cycles.
Figure 9
Figure 9
Surface comparison before and after smoothing.
Figure 10
Figure 10
Reference: mould CAD geometry; Object: mould 1 PVB-PLA after printing.
Figure 11
Figure 11
Reference: mould CAD geometry; Object – mould 2 PVB-PLA after printing.
Figure 12
Figure 12
Reference: mould 1 PLA-PVB after printing; Object: mould 2 PLA-PVB after printing.
Figure 13
Figure 13
Reference – CAD geometry Object – 100% PVB mould after printing.
Figure 14
Figure 14
Reference: mould 100% PVB after printing; Object: mould 1 PLA-PVB after printing.
Figure 15
Figure 15
Reference: mould all-PVB after printing; Object: mould 2 PLA-PVB after printing.
Figure 16
Figure 16
Reference: mould 1 PLA-PVB after printing; Object: mould 1 PLA-PVB after smoothing.
Figure 17
Figure 17
Reference: mould 2 PLA-PVB after printing; Object: mould 2 PLA-PVB after smoothing.
Figure 18
Figure 18
Reference: mould all-PVB after printing; Object: mould all-PVB after smoothing.
Figure 19
Figure 19
Reference: mould 1 PLA-PVB after smoothing Object: mould 2 PLA-PVB after smoothing.
Figure 20
Figure 20
Reference: mould CAD geometry; Object: mould 1 after smoothing.
Figure 21
Figure 21
Reference: mould CAD geometry; Object: mould 2 after smoothing.
Figure 22
Figure 22
Reference: mould CAD geometry; Object: mould all-PVB after smoothing.
Figure 23
Figure 23
Vacuum procedure in the lamination process with the created moulds.
Figure 24
Figure 24
Laminated parts by using the moulds.
Figure 25
Figure 25
Part mounted on the motorbike.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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