III Year – II Semester (Mechanical Engg.
)
Professional Elective - I
Additive Manufacturing Technologies
SOLID BASED
Rapid Prototyping Systems
UNIT-2
Lecture - 3
1
Laminated object manufacturing (LOM)
An AMT that uses sheets of raw material.
Layers of paper, plastic, or metal laminates are successively glued
together and cut to shape with a computer-controlled laser cutter.
The LOM technology was developed in the mid-1980s by Michael
Feygin.
California-based Helisys Inc received a patent for its use in 1998.
However, in 2000, the company was liquidated and Cubic
Technologies became its successor in the industry.
The process of three-dimensional lamination has not much in
common with such popular additive techniques as FDM, SLA or
SLS
Technology characteristics
• LOM is not the most popular method of
3D printing used today, it is still one of the
fastest and most affordable ways to create 3D
prototypes
• Laminated object manufacturing is a lesser
known additive manufacturing process
LAMINATED OBJECT
MAUFACTURING (LOM)
1 Foil supply. 2 Heated roller. 3 Laser beam. 4. Scanning prism. 5 Laser
unit. 6 Layers. 7 Moving platform. 8 Waste.
Object is created by:
(i) Successively layering sheets of build material,
(ii) Bonding them through heat and pressure and
(iii) Cutting them into the desired shape using either a blade or a carbon laser
The LOM process uses a system where a continuous sheet of build material is
drawn across the build platform by a system of feed rollers.
Starting sheet stock includes paper, plastic, cellulose, metals, or fiber-reinforced
materials
The sheet is usually supplied with adhesive backing as rolls that are spooled
between two Reels – Feed roll & Take-up roll
For paper and plastic build material, the sheet may be coated in an adhesive.
A heated roller then passes over the material, melting the adhesive and pressing
the material down onto the platform
A blade or laser then cuts the desired pattern into the material and crosshatches
the unused material so it can be removed post build.
A take-up roll winds up the remaining material.
Finally, the build platform drops down the thickness of one layer, new material is
pulled across the platform and the process is repeated.
After cutting, excess material in the layer remains in place to support the part
during building
DECUBING IN LOM
Advantages
• No additional support material during build process
• Ability to produce larger-scaled models due to no
chemical reactions as in SLA
• Uses very inexpensive paper - Low cost operation
• Fast and accurate
• Good handling strength & Intergrity - but depends on
quality of adhesive
• Environmentally friendly
• Not health threatening
• Rapid tooling process
Disadvantages
• Need for decubing, which requires a lot of
time & skill
• finish, accuracy and stability of paper objects
not as good as materials used with other RP
Methods
• Lot of Material wastage
• Not suitable for small intricate parts
Fused Deposition Modeling
• FDM is an additive manufacturing (AM) technology trademarked by Stratasys
• Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM), or Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF), is an
additive manufacturing process that belongs to the material extrusion family.
• In FDM, an object is built by selectively depositing melted material through a
nozzle tip in a pre-determined path layer-by-layer.
• The materials used are thermoplastic polymers and come in a filament form.
• FDM is the most widely used 3D Printing technology:
• it represents the largest installed base of 3D printers globally and is often the
first technology people are exposed to
• The simplicity, reliability, and affordability of the FDM process have made the
additive manufacturing technology widely recognized and adopted by industry,
academia, and consumers.
• Other techniques such as photopolymerisation and powder sintering may offer
better results, but they are much more costly
Stepper motors or servo
motors are typically
employed to move the
extrusion head
FDM working
1) A spool of thermoplastic filament is first loaded into the printer.
2) Once the nozzle has reached the desired temperature, the filament is fed
to the extrusion head and in the nozzle where it melts.
3) The extrusion head is attached to a 3-axis system that allows it to move in
the X, Y and Z directions.
4) The melted material is extruded in thin strands and is deposited layer-by-
layer in predetermined locations, where it cools and solidifies.
5) Sometimes the cooling of the material is accelerated through the use of
cooling fans attached on the extrusion head.
6) To fill an area, multiple passes are required (similar to coloring a
rectangle with a marker).
7) When a layer is finished, the build platform moves down (or in other
machine setups, the extrusion head moves up) and a new layer is
deposited.
8) This process is repeated until the part is complete.
Materials
Plastic is the most common material for 3d printing via
FFF and other EAM variants.
Various polymers may be used:
acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), polycarbonate
(PC),
polylactic acid (PLA),
high-density polyethylene (HDPE),
polyethylene terephthalate (PETG), polyphenylsulfone
(PPSU) and
high impact polystyrene (HIPS).
Variations in Design
Delta robot printers
These have a large open print volume with a three-armed delta robot mounted
at the top. This design of robot is noted for its low inertia and ability for fast
movement over a large volume.
Material Extrusion
• Fused filament fabrication uses material extrusion to print items, where a
feedstock material is pushed through an extruder.
• In most fused filament fabrication 3D printing machines, the feedstock material
comes in the form of a filament wound onto a spool.
• The 3D printer liquefier is the component predominantly used in this type of
printing.
• Extruders for these printers have a cold end and a hot end.
• The cold end pulls material from the spool, using gear- or roller-based torque to
the material and controlling the feed rate by means of a stepper motor.
• The cold end pushes feedstock into the hot end.
• The hot end consists of a heating chamber and a nozzle. The heating chamber
hosts the liquefier, which melts the feedstock to transform it into a thin liquid.
• It allows the molten material to exit from the small nozzle to form a thin, tacky
bead of plastic that will adhere to the material it is laid on.
• The nozzle will usually have a diameter of between 0.3 mm and 1.0 mm. Different
types of nozzles and heating methods are used depending upon the material to be
printed.
