Syllabus-Module-3

• Printing Processes: evolution of printing as an additive manufacturing

process, research achievements in printing deposition, technical challenges
of printing, printing process modeling, material modification methods,
three- dimensional printing, advantages of binder printing
• sheet Lamination Processes: Materials, Laminated Object Manufacturing
(LOM), Ultrasonic Consolidation (UC), Gluing, Thermal bonding, LOM and
UC applications.
• Beam Deposition Processes: introduction, general beam deposition
process, description material delivery, BD systems, process parameters,
typical materials and microstructure, processing–structure–properties
relationships, BD benefits and drawbacks.
• Direct Write Technologies: Background, ink –based DW, laser transfer, DW
thermals pray, DW beam deposition, DW liquid-phase direct deposition
Printing Processes:
• The development of printing as a process to fabricate 3D parts is
summarized, followed by a survey of commercial polymer printing
machines.
• Direct printing refers to processes where all of the part material is
dispensed from a print head, while binder printing refers to a broad
class of processes where binder or other additive is printed onto a
powder bed which forms the bulk of the part.
• Some of the technical challenges of printing are introduced; material
development for printing polymers, metals, and ceramics is
investigated in some detail.
Historical Development of 3D Printing

• Two-dimensional inkjet printing has been in existence since the 1960s,

used for decades as a method of printing documents and images from
computers and other digital devices.
• Origins in the 1980s: Three-dimensional printing as an additive
manufacturing method originated in the 1980s, with the first successful
commercial technologies emerging in the mid-1990s. Sanders Prototype
(now Solidscape) introduced the ModelMaker in 1994, which utilized a
basic wax material heated to a liquid state. This was followed by 3D
Systems' Actua 2100 in 1996, which also employed wax-based printing.
• InVision 3D printers, featuring high-resolution printing using print heads
with thousands of
• Development of Binder Printing: In the early 1990s, binder printing
methods were developed, notably at MIT, leading to the 3D Printing (3DP)
process. This technique involved printing a binder onto a powder bed to
form part cross sections, enabling the processing of a wide range of
materials including polymers, metals, and ceramics. Successful companies
like ZCorp and Ex One licensed this technology and became prominent
machine developers.
• Advancements in Photopolymer Deposition: Recent developments in
additive manufacturing have focused on the deposition of acrylate
photopolymer, where droplets of liquid monomer are formed and exposed
to ultraviolet light to promote polymerization. This approach, pioneered by
companies like Objet Geometries and 3D Systems, has led to innovations
like the Quadra
Commercially Available Printing Machines
• Solidscape's Melted Wax Technique: Solidscape's T66 and T612
printers, descendants of the Model Maker line, utilize a first-
generation melted wax technique. These machines employ two single
jets to deposit thermoplastic part material and waxy support
material, forming layers 0.0005 inches thick. They are known for their
slow and accurate build style, making them popular for fabricating
investment castings in industries like jewelry and dentistry.
• Unique Features: Solidscape's machines incorporate fly-cutting of
layers after deposition to ensure flatness for subsequent layers. This
feature, combined with the use of waxy materials, enhances precision
and surface quality, meeting the demanding requirements of
industries relying on intricate designs and fine details.
Module-3
• Objet Geometries' Acrylic Photopolymer Printers: Objet Geometries offers the
Eden, Alaris, and Connex series of printers, which utilize acrylic-based
photopolymer materials.
• These machines feature rapid, line-wise deposition efficiency with 1,536
individual nozzles, curing each photopolymer layer with ultraviolet light as it is
printed, resulting in fully cured models without post-curing. Support structures,
made of a gel-like material, are removed by hand and water jetting.
• · Multimaterial Capability: The Connex500 machine from Objet Geometries is
the first to provide multimaterial capability.
• Although it can print only two different photopolymers simultaneously, it can
achieve up to 25 different effective materials by automatically adjusting build
styles and varying the relative composition of the two photopolymers
• 3D Systems' ProJet Printers: Competing with Objet, 3D Systems offers
the ProJet printers, which print layers 0.0016 inches thick. These
printers use heads with hundreds of nozzles, with half dedicated to
part material and half to support material. Ultraviolet light is then
used to activate photoinitiated polymerization, resulting in fully cured
models. The ProJet series represents the third generation of the
Multi-Jet Modeling family from 3D Systems.
• · Technology Evolution: The ProJet series follows predecessors like
the ThermoJet and InVision series, showcasing the evolution of 3D
Systems' Multi-Jet Modeling technology. This technology
advancement aims to improve printing efficiency and produce high-
quality, fully cured models.
Advantages of Printing
• Printing offers advantages such as low cost, high speed, scalability, multi-
material capability, and color printing.
• Printers are comparatively inexpensive and can be assembled from
standard components, making them accessible. High-speed printing is
achievable through print heads with numerous nozzles, enhancing
scalability.
• Adding print heads can increase printing speed. Objet's Connex500
machine demonstrates potential for printing in multiple materials, with
future prospects for more. Color printing is a significant advancement,
previously limited to single colors.
• ZCorp's machines offer high-resolution 24-bit color printing, utilized in
various consumer applications.
• Disadvantages of Printing:
• Despite its advantages, printing has limitations.
• Material choices are currently limited to waxes, photopolymers, and
some polymer-ceramic composites and metals with restrictions.
• Part accuracy, particularly for large parts, may not match other
processes like SL and Fused Deposition Modeling.
• However, industry-wide accuracy improvements are expected
Research Achievements in Printing Deposition
• Polymers
• Ceramics
• Metals

For common droplet formation methods, the maximum printable viscosity

threshold is generally considered to be in the range of 20–40 centipoise
(cP) at the printing temperature.
Factors such as liquid density or surface tension and print head or nozzle
design may affect the results, the limitation on viscosity quickly becomes
the most problematic aspect for droplet formation in material jetting.
Polymers
-Gao and Sonin]-Study on Deposition & Solidification
• columnar, sweep (linear), and repeated sweep (vertical walls) –modes of
deposition
• The two materials used in their investigations were a candelilla wax and a
microcrystalline petroleum wax, deposited in droplets 50 micro m in diameter
from a print head 3–5 mm from a cooled substrate
• If the drops are deposited rapidly (>50 Hz in this case), the substrate on which
they impinge is still at an elevated temperature, reducing the solidification
contact angle and resulting in ball-like depositions instead of columns (Fig. 7.2a)
• proposed that smooth solid lines will be formed only in a small range of droplet
frequencies, dependent upon the sweep speed, droplet size, and solidification
contact angle (Fig. 7.2b)
• Reis et al. [8] also provide some discussion on the linear deposition of
droplets.
• They deposited molten Mobilwax paraffin wax with a heated print
head from SolidScape. They varied both the print head horizontal
speed and the velocity of droplet flight from the nozzle.
• For low droplet speeds, low sweep speeds created discontinuous
deposition and high sweep speeds created continuous lines (Fig.
7.3a–c).
• High droplet impact speed led to splashing at high sweep speeds and
line bulges at low sweep speeds (Fig. 7.3d–f).
• It is clear that process variables such as print head speed, droplet
velocity, and droplet frequency affect the quality of the deposit.
• These process variables vary depending upon the characteristics of
the fluid being printed, so some process development, or fine-tuning,
is generally required when trying to print a new material or develop a
new printing technology.
• Feng et al. [9] finally present a full system, based on a print head from
MicroFab Technologies Inc., that functions similarly to the
commercially available machines.
• It prints a wax material which is heated to 800C, more than ten
degrees past its melting point, and deposits it in layers 13–60 micro
meter thick.
• The deposition pattern is controlled by varying the droplet size and
velocity, as well as the pitch and hatch spacing of the lines produced.
An example of the result, gear, is presented in Fig. 7.
• 3D Systems investigated a series of UV-curable printing materials,
consisting of mixtures of high-molecular weight monomers and
oligomers such as urethane acrylate or methacrylate resins, urethane
waxes, low molecular weight monomers and oligomers such as
acrylates or methacrylates that function as diluents, a small amount
of photoinitiators, and other additives such as stabilizers, surfactants,
pigments, or fillers
• These materials also benefited from the effects of hot melt
deposition, as they were printed at a temperature of 70– 95 0C, with
melting points between 45 and 65 C. At the printing temperatures,
these materials had a viscosity of about 10–16 cP.
Ceramics
• As in the case of polymers, studies have been conducted that investigate
the basic effects of modifying sweep speed, drop-to-drop spacing,
substrate material, line spacing, and simple multilayer forms in the
deposition of ceramics [10].
• These experiments were conducted with a mixture of zirconia powder,
solvent, and other additives, which was printed from a 62 micro m nozzle
onto substrates 6.5 mm away.
• The authors found that on substrates that permitted substantial spreading
of the deposited materials, neighboring drops would merge to form single,
larger shapes, whereas on other substrates the individual dots would
remain independent (see Fig. 7.5).
• In examples where multiple layers were printed, the resulting deposition
was uneven, with ridges and valleys throughout
• A sizable body of work has been amassed in which suspensions of
alumina particles are printed via a wax carrier [11].
• Suspensions of up to 40% solids loading have been successfully
deposited; higher concentrations of the suspended powder have
resulted in prohibitively high viscosities.
• Because this deposition method results in a part with only partial
ceramic density, the green part must be burnt out and sintered,
resulting in a final product which is 80% dense but whose dimensions
are subject to dramatic shrinkage [12]; a part created in this fashion is
shown in Fig. 7.6
Metals
• Much of the printing work related to metals has focused upon the use of
printing for electronics applications—formation of traces, connections, and
soldering. Liu and Orme [20] present an overview of the progress made in
solder droplet deposition for the electronics industry.
• Because solder has a low melting point, it is an obvious choice as a
material for printing. They reported use of droplets of 25–500 μm, with
results such as the IC test board in Fig. 7.7, which has 70μm droplets of
Sn63/Pb37.
• In related work, a solder was jetted whose viscosity was approximately 1.3
cP, continuously jetted under a pressure of 138 kPa. Many of the results to
which they refer are those of researchers at MicroFab Technologies, who
have also produced solder forms such as 25 μm diameter columns
• Priest et al; Metals that had been printed included copper, aluminum,
tin, various solders, and mercury. One major challenge identified for
depositing metals is that the melting point of the material is often
high enough to significantly damage components of the printing
system.
• Orme et al. [22, 23] report on a process that uses droplets of Rose’s
metal (an alloy of bismuth, lead, and tin). They employ nozzles of
diameter 25–150 μm with resulting droplets of 47–283μm. In specific
cases, parts with porosity as low as 0.03 % were formed without post-
processing, and the microstructure formed is more uniform than that
of standard casting.
• Yamaguchi et al. [24, 25] used a piezoelectrically driven actuator to
deposit droplets of an alloy (Bi–Pb–Sn–Cd–In), whose melting point
was 47 0C. They heated the material to 55 0C and ejected it from
nozzles 200 μm, 50 μm, and less than 8 μm in diameter. As expected,
the finer droplets created parts with better resolution
• More recently, several research groups have demonstrated aluminum
deposition [26, 27]. In one example, near-net shape components,
with fairly simple shapes, have been formed from Al2024 alloy
printed from a 100 μm orifice. In another example, pressure pulses of
argon gas in the range of 20–100 kPa were used to eject droplets of
molten aluminum at the rate of 1–5 drops per second.
• To achieve this, the aluminum was melted at 750 0C and the substrate
to 300 0C. The nozzle orifice used was 0.3 mm in diameter, with a
resulting droplet size of 200–500 μm and a deposited line of width
1.00 mm and thickness 0.17 mm. The final product was a near-net
shape part of density up to 92 %.
Research Achievements in Printing Deposition
• Research achievements in printing deposition include bioprinting organs, 3D printing
metals, printed electronics, construction 3D printing, multimaterial printing,
nanotechnology integration, recycled materials usage, AI-driven automation, printed
food, and space exploration applications.
• Bioprinting has advanced tissue and organ fabrication, while metals printing enables
complex metal part production.
• Printed electronics offer flexible device manufacturing, and construction 3D printing
revolutionizes architecture.
• Multimaterial printing creates composite structures with diverse properties, and
nanotechnology enhances material characteristics.
• Recycling materials and AI-driven automation improve sustainability and efficiency.
Printed food explores culinary possibilities, and space exploration applications enable in-
situ manufacturing.
• These achievements signify the broad impact of printing deposition across medical,
engineering, cooking, and space exploration domains.
• As these examples have shown, printing is well on its way to becoming a
viable process for three-dimensional prototyping and manufacturing.
• While industry has only barely begun to use printing in this arena, the
economic and efficiency advantages that printing provide ensure that it will
be pursued extensively in the future.
• Researchers in academia have expanded the use of printing to materials
such as ceramics and metals, thus providing additional prospective
applications for the technology.
• Despite its great potential, however, the growth of printing has been
hampered significantly by technical challenges inherent to the printing
process. These challenges and possible solutions are investigated in
subsequent sections
Technical Challenges of Printing
• Jetting for three-dimensional fabrication is an extremely complex process,
with challenging technical issues throughout. The first of these challenges
is formulation of the liquid material.
• If the material is not in liquid form to begin with, this may mean
suspending particles in a carrier liquid, dissolving materials in a solvent,
melting a solid polymer, or mixing a formulation of monomer or
prepolymer with a polymerization initiator.
• In many cases, other substances such as surfactants are added to the liquid
to attain acceptable characteristics. Entire industries are devoted to the
mixture of inks for two-dimensional printing, and it is reasonable to
assume that in the future this will also be the case for three-dimensional
fabrication
• The second hurdle to overcome is droplet formation.
• To use inkjet deposition methods, the material must be converted
from a continuous volume of liquid into a number of small discrete
droplets.
• This function is often dependent upon a finely tuned relationship
between the material being printed, the hardware involved, and the
process parameters; a number of methods of achieving droplet
formation are discussed in this section.
• Small changes to the material, such as the addition of tiny particles
[30], can dramatically change its droplet forming behavior as well, as
can changes to the physical setup.
• A third challenge is control of the deposition of these droplets; this involves
issues of droplet flight path, impact, and substrate wetting or interaction [31–35].
• In printing processes, either the print head or the substrate is usually moving, so
the calculation of the trajectory of the droplets must take this issue into account.
• In addition to the location of the droplets’ arrival, droplet velocity and size will
also affect the deposition characteristics and must be measured and controlled
via nozzle design and operation [36].
• The quality of the impacted droplet must also be controlled: if smaller droplets,
called satellites, break off from the main droplet during flight, then the deposited
material will be spread over a larger area than intended and the deposition will
not have well-defined boundaries.
• In the same way, if the droplet splashes on impact, forming what is called a
“crown,” similar results will occur [37]. All of the effects will negatively impact the
print quality of the printed material
• An additional challenge is to control the deposition of droplets on top of previously deposited
layers, rather than only upon the initial substrate.
• The droplets will interact differently, for example, with a metal plate substrate than with a surface
of previously printed wax droplets.
• To create substantive three-dimensional parts, each layer deposited must be fully bound to the
previous layer to prevent delamination, but must not damage that layer while being created.
• Operational considerations also pose a challenge in process planning for MJ. For example,
because nozzles are so small, they often clog, preventing droplets fromexiting.
• Much attention has been given to monitoring and maintaining nozzle performance during
operation Most machines currently in use go through purge and cleaning cycles during their
builds to keep as many nozzles open as possible; they may also wipe the nozzles periodically .
• n addition, many machines, including all commercial AM machines, have replaceable nozzles in
case of permanent blockage.
• Even in cases where high nozzle density is possible, however, problems arise due to crosstalk—
basically an “overlapping” of the thermal or pressure differentials used to drive adjacent nozzles.
• In approaching a printing process, these numerous challenges must in
some sense be addressed sequentially: flight pattern cannot be
studied until droplets are formed and layering cannot be investigated
until deposition of single droplets iscontrolled.
• In terms of functional polymer deposition, the challenge of material
preparation has effectively been addressed; numerous polymer resins
and mixtures already exist.
• It is the second challenge—droplet formation—that is therefore the
current limiting factor in deposition of these materials.
Droplet Formation Technologies
• The main distinction in categorizing the most common of technologies refers to
the possible4 modes of expulsion: continuous stream (CS) and DOD.
• This distinction refers to the form in which the liquid exits the nozzle—as either a
continuous column of liquid or as discrete droplets. Figure 7.9 shows the
distinction between continuous (left) and DOD (right) formations.
Continuous Mode
• In CS mode, a steady pressure is applied to the fluid reservoir, causing
a pressurized column of fluid to be ejected from the nozzle.
• After departing the nozzle, this stream breaks into droplets due to
Rayleigh instability.
• The breakup can be made more consistent by vibrating, perturbing,
or modulating the jet at a fixed frequency close to the spontaneous
droplet formation rate, in which case the droplet formation process is
synchronized with the forced vibration, and ink droplets of uniform
mass are ejected
• Because droplets are produced at constant
intervals, their deposition must be controlled after
they separate from the jet. To achieve this, they are
introduced to a charging field and thus attain an
electrostatic charge.
• These charged particles then pass through a
deflection field, which directs the particles to their
desired destinations—either a location on the
substrate or a container of material to be recycled
or disposed
• Figure 7.10 shows a schematic of the function of
this type of binary deflection continuous system
• An advantage of CS deposition is the high throughput rate; it has therefore seen
widespread use in applications such as food and pharmaceutical labeling [5].
• Two major constraints related to this method of droplet formation are, however,
that the materials must be able to carry a charge and that the fluid deflected into
the catcher must be either disposed of or reprocessed, causing problems in cases
where the fluid is costly or where waste management is an issue.
• In terms of droplets formed, commercially available systems typically generate
droplets that are about 150 μm in diameter at a rate of 80–100 kHz, but
frequencies of up to 1 MHz and droplet sizes ranging from 6 μm (10 fL) to 1 mm
(0.5 μL) have been reported [46].
• It has also been shown that, in general, droplets formed from continuous jets are
almost twice the diameter of the undisturbed jet [47]
DOD Mode
• In DOD mode, in contrast, individual droplets are produced directly
from the nozzle.
• Droplets are formed only when individual pressure pulses in the
nozzle cause the fluid to be expelled; these pressure pulses are
created at specific times by thermal, electrostatic, piezoelectric,
acoustic, or other actuators.
• Liu and Orme [20] assert that DOD methods can deposit droplets of
25–120 μm at a rate of 0–2,000 drops per second.
• In the current DOD printing industry, thermal (bubble-jet) and
piezoelectric actuator technologies dominate; these are shown in Fig.
7.12
• Thermal actuators rely on a resistor to heat the liquid within a
reservoir until a bubble expands in it, forcing a droplet out of the
nozzle
• Piezoelectric actuators rely upon the deformation of a piezoelectric
element to reduce the volume of the liquid reservoir, which causes a
droplet to be ejected
• Basaran [51], the waveforms employed in piezoelectrically driven
DOD systems can vary from simple positive square waves to complex
negative–positive–negative waves in which the amplitude, duration,
and other parameters are carefully modulated to create the droplets
as desired
• e Gans et al. [5] assert that DOD is the preferable method for all
applications that they discuss due to its smaller drop size (often of
diameter similar to the orifice) and higher placement accuracy in
comparison to CS methods.
• They further argue that piezoelectric DOD is more widely applicable than
thermal because it does not rely on the formation of a vapor bubble or on
heating that can damage sensitive materials.
• At present, all commercial AM printing machines use DOD print heads,
gener ally from a major manufacturer of printers or printing technologies.
Such companies include Hewlett-Packard, Canon, Dimatix, Konica-Minolta,
and Xaar.
• ceramic deposition, Reis et al. [9] print mixtures with viscosities 6.5 and
14.5 cP at 100 C and frequencies of 6–20 kHz. Yamaguchi et al. [24, 25] also
used a piezoelectrically driven DOD device at frequencies up to 20 Hz in the
deposition of metal droplets. Similarly, the solder droplets on the circuit
board in Fig. 7.7 were also deposited with a DOD system
Assignment(Module-1 &2)
1. What is Additive Manufacturing? Discuss the need of Additive Manufacturing.
2. Discuss the advantages , Disadvantages and Applications of AM
3. Discuss the Development and evolution of AM Technology
4. Distinguish AM and CNC Machining
5. With block diagram explain the generic AM Process chain
6. What is Stereo Lithography ? explain working principle with a neat diagram.
7. Explain Photopolmerization and discuss the Benefits , drawbacks and applications
8. Write a short note on SL resin curing Process
9. With a neat Sketch Explain Powder bed fusion process and discuss the Benefits ,
drawbacks and applications
10. With a neat Sketch Explain fusion Deposition Modeling and discuss the Benefits ,
drawbacks and applications