MF8071: ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING

Lecture Notes

UNIT – I INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-24

UNIT – II DESIGN FOR ADDITIVE

MANUFACTURING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25-52

UNIT – III PHOTOPOLYMERIZATION AND

POWDER BED FUSION PROCESSES . . 53-73

UNIT – IV EXTRUSION BASED AND

SHEET LAMINATION PROCESSES . . . 75-95

UNIT – V PRINTING PROCESSES AND

BEAM DEPOSITION PROCESSES . . . . 97-115

REVIEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117-131

Compiled by
Dr. M. Puviyarasan
Professor in Mechanical Engineering
Panimalar Engineering College
Chennai – 600 123.
 Syllabus for Anna University Affiliated Institutions – Regulation 2017

MF8071 ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING LTPC

3003
OBJECTIVES:
• To know the principle, methods, possibilities and limitations as well as environmental effects of
Additive Manufacturing technologies.
• To be familiar with the characteristics of the different materials those are used in Additive
Manufacturing technologies.

UNIT I INTRODUCTION 9
Overview – Need - Development of Additive Manufacturing Technology -Principle – AM Process
Chain- Classification –Rapid Prototyping- Rapid Tooling – Rapid Manufacturing – Applications-
Benefits –Case studies.

UNIT II DESIGN FOR ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING 9

Design tools: Data processing - CAD model preparation – Part orientation and support structure
generation – Model slicing –Tool path generation- Design for Additive Manufacturing: Concepts
and objectives- AM unique capabilities – DFAM for part quality improvement- Customised design
and fabrication for medical applications.

UNIT III PHOTOPOLYMERIZATION AND POWDER BED FUSION PROCESSES 9

Photo polymerization: SLA-Photo curable materials – Process - Advantages and Applications.
Powder Bed Fusion: SLS-Process description – powder fusion mechanism – Process Parameters
– Typical Materials and Application. Electron Beam Melting.

UNIT IV EXTRUSION BASED AND SHEET LAMINATION PROCESSES 9

Extrusion Based System: FDM-Introduction – Basic Principle – Materials – Applications and
Limitations – Bioextrusion.
Sheet Lamination Process:LOM- Gluing or Adhesive bonding – Thermal bonding.

UNIT V PRINTING PROCESSES AND BEAM DEPOSITION PROCESSES 9

Droplet formation technologies – Continuous mode – Drop on Demand mode – Three Dimensional
Printing – Advantages – Bioplotter - Beam Deposition Process:LENS- Process description –
Material delivery – Process parameters – Materials – Benefits – Applications.
TOTA L: 45 PERIODS
OUTCOME:
On completion of this course, students will learn about a working principle and construction of
Additive Manufacturing technologies, their potential to support design and manufacturing,
modern development in additive manufacturing process and case studies relevant to mass
customized manufacturing.

TEXT BOOKS:
1. Chua C.K., Leong K.F., and Lim C.S., “Rapid prototyping: Principles and applications”, Third
edition, World Scientific Publishers, 2010.
2. Ian Gibson, David W.Rosen, Brent Stucker “Additive Manufacturing Technologies: Rapid
Prototyping to Direct Digital Manufacturing” Springer , 2010.

REFERENCES:
1. Andreas Gebhardt “Understanding Additive Manufacturing: Rapid Prototyping, Rapid
Manufacturing” Hanser Gardner Publication 2011.
2. Kamrani A.K. and Nasr E.A., “Rapid Prototyping: Theory and practice”, Springer, 2006.
3. Liou L.W. and Liou F.W., “Rapid Prototyping and Engineering applications :A tool box for
prototype development”, CRC Press, 2007.
4. Tom Page “Design for Additive Manufacturing” LAP Lambert Academic Publishing, 2012.
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UNIT - I
INTRODUCTION 9
✓ Overview – Need - Development of Additive Manufacturing Technology
✓ Principle – AM Process Chain – Classification
✓ Rapid Prototyping- Rapid Tooling – Rapid Manufacturing
✓ Applications – Benefits - Case studies.
1.1 Overview of Additive Manufacturing

Definition: The process of joining materials to make objects from 3D model data, usually layer
upon layer, as opposed to subtractive manufacturing methods.
Additive Manufacturing (AM) refers to a process by which digital 3D design data is used to
build up a component in layers by depositing material.
- According to ASTM International Committee F42 on Additive Manufacturing Technology

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“Additive manufacturing uses data computer-aided-design (CAD) software or 3D object
scanners to direct hardware to deposit material, layer upon layer, in precise geometric shapes.”
-GE Additive, part of General Electric
✓ Although the terms "3D printing" and "rapid prototyping" are casually used to discuss
additive manufacturing, each process is actually a subset of additive manufacturing.
✓ AM allows for mass customization, reduced material waste, lower costs, and increased
efficiency compared to injection moulding, extrusion, or subtractive manufacturing
processes.
✓ Companies like GE and Boeing are swiftly and immediately replacing older technologies,
processes, and assembly lines with additive manufacturing due to the immense benefits it
brings.

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Need for Additive Manufacturing

Additive Manufacturing helps us in making components under the following cases:

✓ Complex geometries ✓ Faster
✓ Design Freedom ✓ Enhanced performance
✓ Multiple materials ✓ Light-weight Components
✓ New materials ✓ Low-Volume manufacturing
✓ Functional Integration ✓ Accuracy

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Development of Additive Manufacturing Technology

Detailed Timeline of Developments in AM Technology

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1.2 Principle and Process Chain

The AM process can be described in 8 steps :

1. Computer-aided design (CAD): First a digital model of the part is made by using CAD solid
modelling software.
2. Conversion: When the digital model is finished it has to be converted to the
stereolithography (STL - Standard Tessellation Language) file format. This format is the one
that the AM machines use and almost every CAD system supports it. This STL file is then the
basis for the calculation of the slices of the model.
3. Transfer to the machine: The third step is the transfer of the STL file to the AM machine. In
this step, some manipulation can be done so that the build can be made in the correct
position and size. The AM machine is controlled by the computer, that computer only
generates the required instruction in the form of G-codes and M-codes based on the given
process parameters. It generates instructions automatically, if any correction is needed for
the betterment of the part to be built it can be corrected
4. Setup: Before the building starts, the equipment has to be set up. The settings can constitute
power, speed, layer thickness, and other several parameters related to material and process
constraints, etc.
5. Build: The fifth step is the actual building of the CAD model, melting layer by layer. This
process can be semi or fully automated but some online monitoring is often conducted, so
that the machine does not run out of material or that some software error occurs.
6. Removal: Once the part is manufactured it has to be removed from the process, which is
normally done manually.
7. Post-processing: After the build, the part might need some post-processing before it is
completely finished. Of course, depending on the material and AM process used, some parts
might need machining, cleaning, polishing, removal of support structures, hot isostatic
pressing (HIP), and heat treatments.
8. Application: At this stage, the part can be ready for use. Nevertheless, it could also need some
additional treatments, like painting, or assembling with other components before it is fully
usable.
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The Generic AM Process

✓ AM involves several steps that move from the virtual CAD description to the physical resultant part.
✓ Different products will involve AM in different ways and to different degrees.
✓ Small, relatively simple products may only make use of AM for visualization models, while larger,
more complex products with greater engineering content may involve AM during numerous stages
and iterations throughout the development process.
✓ Furthermore, the early stages of the product development process may only require rough parts,
with AM being used because of the speed at which they can be fabricated.
✓ At later stages of the process, parts may require careful cleaning and post-processing (including
sanding, surface preparation, and painting) before they are used, with AM being useful here because
of the complexity of form that can be created without considering tooling.
Step 1: CAD
✓ All AM parts must start from a software model that fully describes the external geometry.
✓ This can involve the use of almost any professional CAD solid modelling software, but the output
must be a 3D solid or surface representation.
✓ Reverse engineering equipment (e.g., laser and optical scanning) can also be used to create this
representation.
Step 2: Conversion to STL
✓ Nearly every AM machine accepts the STL file format, which has become a de-facto standard, and
nowadays nearly every CAD system can output such a file format.
✓ This file describes the external closed surfaces of the original CAD model and forms the basis for the
calculation of the slices.
✓ Layer thickness and the slice thickness will be the same.
Step 3: Transfer to AM Machine and STL File Manipulation
✓ The STL file describing the part must be transferred to the AM machine. Here, there may be some
general manipulation of the file so that it is the correct size, position, and orientation for the
building.
Step 4: Machine Setup
✓ The AM machine must be properly set up prior to the build process.

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✓ Such settings would relate to the build parameters like the material constraints, energy source,
layer thickness, timings, etc.
Step 5: Build
✓ Building the part is mainly an automated
process and the machine can be mostly carried
on without supervision.
✓ Only superficial monitoring of the machine
needs to take place at this time to ensure no
errors have taken place like running out of
material, power or software glitches, etc.
Step 6: Removal
✓ Once the AM machine has completed the build,
the parts must be removed.
✓ This may require interaction with the
machine, which may have safety interlocks to
ensure, for example, that the operating
temperatures are sufficiently low or that there
are no actively moving parts.
Step 7: Post-processing
✓ Once removed from the machine, parts may
require an amount of additional cleaning up
before they are ready for use.
✓ Parts may be weak at this stage or they may
have supporting features that must be
removed.
✓ This therefore often requires time and careful,
experienced manual manipulation.
Step 8: Application
✓ Parts may now be ready to be used. However,
they may also require additional treatment
before they are acceptable for use.
✓ For example, they may require priming and
painting to give an acceptable surface texture and finish.
✓ Treatments may be laborious and lengthy if the finishing requirements are very demanding.
✓ They may also be required to be assembled with other mechanical or electronic components to
form a final model or product.

✓ Many AM machines use fragile laser or printer technology that must be carefully monitored and that
should preferably not be used in a dirty or noisy environment.
✓ While machines are generally designed to operate unattended, it is important to include regular
checks in the maintenance schedule, and those different technologies require different levels of
maintenance.
✓ It is also important to note that AM processes fall outside of most materials and process standards;
explaining the recent interest in the ASTM F42 Technical Committee on Additive Manufacturing
Technologies, which is working to address and overcome this problem.
✓ However, many machine vendors recommend and provide test patterns that can be used
periodically to confirm that the machines are operating within acceptable limits.

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✓ In addition to the machinery, materials may also require careful handling.
✓ The raw materials used in some AM processes have limited shelf-life and may also be required to
be kept in conditions that prevent them from unwanted chemical reactions.
✓ Exposure to moisture, excess light, and other contaminants should also be avoided.
✓ Most processes use materials that can be reused for more than one build.
✓ However, that reuse of the material may degrade the properties if performed many times over, and
therefore a procedure for maintaining consistent material quality through recycling should also be
observed.
Comparison between Additive and Traditional Manufacturing

Classification of AM Process

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AM of Metallic Products

Vaezi et al., 2020

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1.3 Rapid Prototyping | Rapid Manufacturing | Rapid Tooling
The technology of additive manufacturing/3D printing is divided into two
main application levels:
✓ Rapid Prototyping and Rapid Manufacturing.
✓ Rapid prototyping is the application of AM/3DP to make prototypes and models or
mock-ups.
✓ Rapid manufacturing is the application to make final parts and products.
❖ The manufacturing of tools, tool inserts, gauges, and so on usually is called rapid
tooling.
❖ The term often is regarded as an independent hierarchical element or application
level, but effectively it is not.
❖ Depending on how a tool is made, it represents a prototype or a product.

Additive manufacturing technology and its subcategories

Rapid Prototyping
✓ Rapid prototyping is the fast fabrication of a physical part, model, or assembly using 3D
computer-aided design (CAD).
✓ The creation of the part, model, or assembly is usually completed using additive
manufacturing, more commonly known as 3D printing.
✓ Where the design closely matches the proposed finished product (Rapid prototyping using
selective laser melting) it is said to be a high-fidelity prototype, as opposed to a low fidelity
prototype, where there is a marked difference between the prototype and the final product.
How does RP Works?
✓ While additive manufacturing is the most common rapid prototyping process, other more
conventional processes can also be used to create prototypes. (Hybrid Manufacturing).
✓ Other technologies used for RP include high-speed machining, casting, moulding, and
extruding.

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Rapid Manufacturing
✓ The term rapid manufacturing is used to summarize different methods and manufacturing
processes that serve the fast and flexible production of prototypes and series parts.
✓ Rapid manufacturing is the use of software automation and connected manufacturing
equipment to rapidly accelerate the manufacturing process.
✓ It is understood that the production will imply to use of non-conventional tools directly
reading the available CAD data.
✓ This requires professional automation software with which the manufacturing process can
be controlled and monitored.
✓ The choice of the right program depends to a large extent on the part to be manufactured.
✓ For mould makers specifically, rapid manufacturing is on-demand, low-volume production
of injection-moulded plastic parts.
✓ However, rapid manufacturing encompasses more than just moulding.
✓ This manufacturing automation is applied to 3D printing, CNC machining, and more.
✓ Often the terms e-manufacturing, digital manufacturing, tool-less fabrication, and others
are used.
RPT vs RM
✓ In contrast to rapid prototyping, rapid manufacturing does not only produce models but
end products that are intended for use under real conditions.
✓ With the help of various AM processes such as stereolithography, laser melting, or selective
laser sintering, high-resolution 3-D objects are created directly from the existing CAD data.
✓ Due to the variety of possibilities regarding the selectable materials, it is also possible to
adjust the mechanical properties of the manufactured parts and small series as desired
beforehand.
Rapid Tooling
✓ Rapid Tooling is when Rapid Prototyping techniques and conventional tooling practices are
used together to produce a mould/tool quickly.
✓ RT can be defined as the use of a rapid prototype as a tooling pattern for the purposes of
moulding production materials or the direct production of a tool from the rapid prototyping
system.
✓ This process is also used to prepare parts of a model from CAD data in less time and at a
lower cost compared to traditional manufacturing methods.
✓ Rapid Tooling is used as a channel to produce injection moulded parts.
✓ Rapid tooling is an umbrella term that refers to any process that allows us to make a tool or
mould in a short amount of time.
✓ It is generally faster and more streamlined than conventional tooling.
✓ Two Types of Rapid Tooling: Direct and Indirect

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Direct Rapid Tooling

✓ Direct rapid tooling is
actually more commonly
used during
manufacturing than for
prototyping.
✓ In a short-run production,
this type of rapid tooling
enables to create a mould
or tool very quickly and
begin producing products
from it almost
immediately.
✓ Especially beneficial for
short-run productions
because the tool doesn’t
typically have to be very
robust or durable.
✓ We can manufacture up to
about 5,000 parts from
this type of mould,
depending on the
materials we use and the complexity of the design.
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In-Direct Rapid Tooling
✓ Indirect rapid tooling
is much more common
during the prototyping
stage.
✓ That’s because it’s
meant for
experimentation and
testing.
✓ When we already
have a detailed design
and we want to test
different materials.
✓ For example, In-direct
rapid tooling is a
great option as it
makes it easy to
create multiple test
tools and moulds
from the same master
pattern.
RM|RP|RT:: Summary
✓ Rapid manufacturing is a term that includes rapid prototyping (RP) and rapid tooling (RT).
✓ Manufacturing functional prototypes and tools using conventional methods usually is a
time-consuming procedure with multiple steps.
✓ The pressure to get products to market faster has resulted in the creation of several Rapid
Prototyping (RP) techniques.
✓ RP is a technology in which physical objects and functional prototypes are fabricated
directly from CAD files or from the digitized data of other software sources.
✓ RT is a natural extension of RP that concerns the production of tooling using inserts.
AM: application level: rapid manufacturing;sub-level: indirect manufacturing

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1.4 Application of AM

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✓ Pre-surgical planning: patient-specific treatments (acquire accurate 3D representations of the

anatomy)
✓ Widely used in maxillofacial and craniofacial reconstruction, Rehearsals of new or complex
procedures (Ex. Siamese twins’ surgery)
✓ Custom medical devices: ear hearing aids.
✓ Titanium alloy, Ti6Al4V, is available for many direct metal additive processes and is often
used in medical applications because of its biocompatibility.
✓ The same structural optimization concepts that have been applied to direct metal
fabrication in the aerospace and automotive industry have also been utilized in the
biomedical field, particularly for reducing the stiffness of orthopaedic implants such as hip
stems or limb-sparing constructs.
✓ The flexibility in geometries and materials that additive manufacturing accommodates
coupled with precision computer control of the placement of those materials has given rise
to a very interesting application;
✓ Tissue Engineering: The layered nature of additive manufacturing facilitates the
generation of complex tissue scaffolds.
✓ The scaffolds are often in the form of porous implants designed to provide structural
support for seeded/deposited living cells.

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✓ The bounding geometry of the scaffolds themselves can be derived from patient-specific
medical imaging data to repair a specific wound, fracture, or defect.
✓ To build such scaffolds a wide variety of biocompatible and bioresorbable polymers or
ceramics can be used in conjunction with existing additive manufacturing systems.
✓ These include polymers like polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA), and polycaprolactone (PCL).

Major Medical Areas where Additive Manufacturing has been Implemented

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Top 10 benefits of AM
✓ The Cost of Entry Continues to Fall
✓ We can Save on Material Waste and Energy
✓ Prototyping Costs Much Less
✓ Small Production Runs Often Prove Faster and Less Expensive
✓ We Don't Need as Much On-Hand Inventory
✓ It's Easier to Recreate and Optimize Legacy Parts
✓ Can Improve Part Reliability
✓ Can Consolidate an Assembly into a Single Part
✓ It Uniquely Supports New AI-Driven Design Methods (Generative)
✓ It Uniquely Supports Lattice Structures

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Benefits of AM (Sector-wise)

Challenges of AM Processes (Srivastava et al ., 2020 )

1. Non-optimal build speeds
2. Relatively less accuracy
3. A decision regarding optimal part orientation
4. Restricted choice of raw materials and resulting material properties
5. Poor surface finish
6. Pre-processing and post-processing requirements
7. High system cost chiefly owing to limited buyers
8. Anisotropic behavior of AM fabricated parts
9. Occurrence of the stair-stepping phenomenon
10. Need for optimal layer thickness selection
11. Need of support structure
12. The poor structural strength of parts fabricated via AM techniques.
13. Limitation in the use of materials
14. Void Formation 19. Layer misalignment
15. Limit on the part size 20. Over-extrusion
16. Warping 21. Elephant foot
17. Gaps in the top layers 22. Post-processing
18. Under-extrusion

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Technological Limitations

CASE STUDIES

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Summary

References
❖ Manu Srivastava, Sandeep Rathee, Sachin Maheshwari and T. K. Kundra, “Additive
Manufacturing Fundamentals and Advancements”, CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group, 2020.
❖ Gebhardt, “Understanding Additive Manufacturing”, Hanser Publications, 2011.
❖ Ian Gibson, David W.Rosen, Brent Stucker, “Additive Manufacturing Technologies: Rapid
Prototyping to Direct Digital Manufacturing” Springer, 2010.
❖ Wohler’s Report
❖ Research Articles and Web Resources

Acknowledgments
❖ Kandasamy M, and Akash P, Undergraduate Students for Editing and Proofing

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UNIT - II
DESIGN FOR ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING 9
✓ Design tools: Data processing - CAD model preparation
✓ Part orientation and support structure generation – Model slicing –Tool path generation
✓ Design for Additive Manufacturing: Concepts and objectives

2.1 Design Tools

✓ Additive manufacturing has the potential to be a revolutionary addition to your traditional

manufacturing capabilities and can be implemented in two distinct ways: either very
poorly, or very well.
✓ The path we choose will determine just how great of a tool it can be for our problems.
Poorly-deployed additive
✓ The poorly-deployed additive is essentially just a replacement for traditional processes.
✓ Just take the existing parts you currently design and then try to print them off.
✓ This is not very optimized and is a poor way to go out about it.
Well-deployed Additive
✓ A well-deployed additive solution is thought of as a new tool for improving manufacturing
aid functionality and cost.
✓ There needs to be a two-way street for DfAM to work properly.
✓ One common example is that management sets a budget for engineering to get them the
equipment and start printing parts.
✓ This normally doesn’t go well because essentially there’s no optimization or feedback.
✓ A well-deployed additive will have a two-way street going all the way from management to
operations and then back.
✓ The recommended type of workflow to develop in any organization is to make sure that
Design for Additive Manufacturing is optimized well.

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DFAM Savings
I;khddfg

CAD Model Preparation

4
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2.2 Part/Build orientation

Design to Avoid Anisotropy

✓ Anisotropy: The difference in mechanical properties of a part in the vertical direction, can
be the Achilles heel of additive manufacturing.
✓ This anisotropy affects all AM technologies, but some are affected more than others

✓ Anisotropy, or the weakness between layers, will cause apart to react differently under
different forces.
✓ The left bracket would be weak in the direction of the force, whereas the right bracket
would be substantially stronger because of the print orientation.

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✓ When designing your
component, it is good to have
an understanding of the
orientation that it will be built
in, so that it can be designed
with the optimal number of
features that will be subjected
to high forces oriented in the X-
Y plane.

Effect of Build
Orientation on Surfac e Finish

✓ Build Orientation of the component is always crucial as it affects the quality of the
component fabricated.
✓ It is always important to take into consideration the various orientations possible and
choose the best orientation that yields a very small roughness value and negligible stair-
stepping effect.
Effect of Build Orientation on Part Strength
✓ Strength of a material is
also affected by the part
orientation.
✓ The engineer needs to
analyze the various
forces that will act on
the component during
its service.
✓ Based on it, the part
should be oriented
accordingly in such a
way it also produces
very little deviation in
surface quality.

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Layer Adhesion

Part Orientation: A Generic Cost Model

Some of the effects of printing a part in two different orientations

2.3 Support Structure Generation

✓ Printed support structures are needed in FDM, SLA, etc. (powder bed processes such as SLS
without a supporting structure)
✓ Support structures help in the prevention of distortion of the component by providing
supports at the required interface.
✓ It is feasible to avoid support structures as much as possible in most circumstances by
implementing the concepts of DfAM whenever possible in the component.
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✓ But in some unavoidable cases, it is preferred to go for support structures rather than
producing unacceptable products.
✓ The general rule of thumb: most extrusion-based printers can support overhang angles less
than 45 degrees.
✓ Adding support structures with the aid of software’s (Example: Simplify 3D)

The influence of support structures on manufacturability and

associated DFAM guidelines

✓ The regions that come in contact with supports will produce some waviness in that
particular region.
✓ So, it is convenient to orient the component in such a way that the supports make
contact with the non-functional regions of the component.
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✓ Additive Manufacturing processes produce a very less amount of wastage when

compared to the traditional process.
✓ The magnitude of wastage can be further reduced by reducing the amount(area or
number) of support structures used.
✓ In the above example, we can visually see how the volume of the support structure is
drastically reduced for the same component.

✓ Post-processing is a mandatory process in AM for support removal.

✓ So, it is better to design the component with functional supports so that it does not need
to be post-processed after fabrication.
(D) Self-Supporting Angles

✓ As we already know, overhangs less than 45 degree does not require the necessity of
support structures

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(E) Types of Supports

Different AM methods and their characteristics

Characteristics FDM LOM SLA 3DP EBM LMD

Paper, Metals,
Material Reactive
Polymer polymers, ceramics, Metals Metals
Variety Resin
composites polymers

High
Component Fragile High
Fragile parts Fragile parts Fragile parts Mech.
Properties parts Mech. Prop.
Prop.

Surface Finish Good Fine High PP needed High High

Energy
Low Low Very low High High High
Consumption

Tech. Cost Low High High Low High High

It is
Mandatory
The preferable
when the
excess to have a The The
overhang
sheet support surrounding surrounding
is greater
Support material structure in powder powder
than 45 No
Structure acts as order to material material
degrees to
the achieve will act as a will act as a
the
support high- support support
direction
structure resolution
of build
components

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Characteristics FDM LOM SLA 3DP EBM LMD

Temperature Low Low Very low High High High

Production
Low High Medium High Low High
Rate

2.4 Model Slicing

Identification of Peak Features

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Effect of Layer Height on Surface Finish (Stair -Step Effect)

✓ The surface finish of material extrusion technologies can also be an issue, depending on the
intended application, as it generally has the lowest quality surface finish of the technologies
described in this chapter.
✓ In particular, gently sloping surfaces tend to have quite a visible “stair-step” or effect. Note
that this applies to all AM technologies, but is particularly visible in material extrusion
technologies.

2.5 ToolPath Generation

The infl uence of toolpath on manufacturability and associat ed DFAM gui delines

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Different Toolpaths of a component

✓ Toolpath is also an important factor to consider for the production of void-free

components.
✓ The above diagram depicts a variety of tool paths that are most commonly used in AM
✓ Each toolpath has its own pros and cons.
✓ Depending on the requirement, the most suitable toolpath should be selected.

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2.6 Design for Additive Manufacturing: Concepts and objectives

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Print Temperature

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2.7 Common Thumb Rules for DFAM

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UNIT - III
PHOTOPOLYMERIZATION AND POWDER BED FUSION PROCESSES 9
✓ Photopolymerization: SLA-Photo curable materials – Process - Advantages and
Applications.
✓ Powder Bed Fusion: SLS-Process description – powder fusion mechanism – Process
Parameters – Typical Materials and Application.
✓ Electron Beam Melting.
3.1 VAT PHOTOPOLYMERIZATION
✓ Stereolithography is one of the oldest and best-known examples.
✓ Used synonymously with the vat polymerization process itself.
✓ Dr. Hideo Kodama (1981) was the pioneer in the stereolithography (SLA) process as a fast
and economical substitute for holographic techniques.
✓ Dr. Charles Hull (1986) filed the first patent on SLA and founded 3D Systems Inc.
✓ ISO/ASTM defines this process as:
“Vat photopolymerization is an additive manufacturing process in which liquid
photopolymer in a vat is selectively cured by light-activated polymerization”
Working Principle
✓ Polymerization is a process through which a large number of monomer molecules react
together to form a polymer.

✓ Photopolymerization is a technique that uses light (visible or ultraviolet; UV) to initiate

and propagate a polymerization reaction to form a linear or cross-linked polymer structure.

✓ Layers of the liquid precursor in a vat are sequentially exposed to ultraviolet (UV) light and
thereby selectively solidified.
✓ A Photoinitiator (PI) molecule in the resin responds to incoming light and upon
irradiation, locally activates the chemical polymerization reaction, which leads to curing
only in the exposed areas.
✓ After developing the first layer in that manner, a fresh resin film is applied, irradiated, and
cured.
✓ Thus, the part incrementally grows layer-after layer.
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✓ This principle spans all SLA processes.

Vat photopolymerization syste ms – Basic Components

Vat photopolymeriza tion system main subsystems

✓ Support structures are specially required in these systems since there is no support from
adjacent material during part fabrication owing to liquid state raw material.
✓ The layer thickness obtained is typically around 0.025–0.5 mm.
✓ SLA was first used for plastic part creation.
✓ Proven its versatility in the fabrication of a variety of intricate and customized parts
✓ Capable of making parts from metals, ceramics, plastics, composites, and so on.
Major Steps of VPP
1. Lowering of build platform from resin vat top by the one-layer thickness
2. Curing of resin by UV light and subsequent lowering of platform to accommodate next layer
3. Smoothening of resin to provide a base for the next layer
4. Draining of resin from vat
5. Removal of part
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6. Removal of support
7. Post-curing.

Vat Photopolymerization Process Chain (for Ceramic)

Post-processing
✓ The last three steps of removal of part, removal of support, and post-curing together
constitute the post-processing stage.
✓ It involves the removal of parts from resin and completely draining off any excess resin.
✓ A knife or sharp implements are utilized to remove supports.
✓ Appropriate safety precautions should be taken to prevent contamination of resin.
✓ Many ways to remove resin and supports → Rinsing with alcohol and then with water.
✓ Parts are either allowed to dry naturally or by using an air hose.
✓ UV light is utilized to finally post-cure parts to obtain good quality parts.
✓ The process and use of support often result in defects like air gaps that should be filled with
resin for achieving high-quality models.
✓ When the part is removed from the build platform, support structures are eliminated from it.
✓ This involves cleaning in solvents, drying of structures, and then sanding.
✓ The parts are then cured in a UV chamber to obtain enhanced mechanical characteristics.
✓ Debinding and sintering are considered post-processing steps in the case of filled resins.
✓ The procedure of cleaning, removal of the supports, and post-cross-linking of the
components is known as postprocessing and is the same for all laser-scanner-based
stereolithography processes.
✓ After the construction process, the models are removed from the build platform and
cleaned (acrylates with TPM), and after cleaning the solvent is removed as completely as
possible (TPM with isopropanol).
✓ Laser-based stereolithography methods generally do not polymerize the component
completely, but solidify it depending on the hardness penetration, up to about 96 %.
✓ The components are therefore post-cross-linked outside the machine in special ultraviolet
(UV) chambers (post-curing oven) so that they are cured or fully polymerized.
✓ For postprocessing, mechanical reworking by sandblasting, grinding, milling, and so on, is
done as far as it is necessary to achieve the desired process-typical characteristics.

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Classification/Types of VPP/SLA

Classification Based on the direction of the incident light:

✓ In the free surface approach, the building platform on which the printed part grows is
situated in a tank of resin and coated with a liquid resin film.
✓ Illumination of the desired cross-section, which happens from above the resin bath,
cures the first layer.
✓ After each layer, the platform with the growing part (i.e. the Z-stage), is lowered
further into the tank, and new resin is coated on top with a mechanical sweeper.
✓ This sets the stage for the subsequent layer.
✓ As with the free surface setup, support structures made from the same printing
material are needed in case of overhangs and undercuts to ensure adequate
adhesion to the platform.
✓ The constrained surface approach or bottom-exposure approach has a building
platform, which can be suspended above the resin bath.
✓ Illumination from below, through the transparent floor, cures a layer of resin
between the building platform and vat floor.
✓ This layer adheres to the platform as the z-stage is raised by a defined distance.
✓ As each layer is cured, the building platform with the adhered part is elevated, and
the part grows suspended from the platform downward.
✓ The bottom-exposure approach has certain advantages
✓ The smooth surface, which is created with a narrowly defined layer height due to the
precise movement of the z-stage at an accuracy of down to 0.1–1 µm.
✓ Without the need for a mechanical sweeper, the layer can be created faster than the
free surface approach, reducing the printing time.
✓ A lower amount of resin is needed because the specimen does not have to be
completely submerged in the vat. → Decreases cost.
✓ The disadvantage of the bottom-exposure setup
✓ The attractive forces between the printed part and the vat floor need to be overcome
for each layer.
✓ When pulling up the z-stage, the newly cured layer needs to adhere to the layers
above, and may not stick to the vat surface.

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Other forms of VPP/SLA
The industrial application of the principle of solidification of liquid or pasty monomers by
polymerization is called stereolithography.
✓ It includes laser scanner stereolithography, lamp mask stereolithography, the polymer
printing method, and the polymerization of pastes.
Laser Stereolithography
✓ Laser scanner stereolithography is the ancestor of all industrially offered additive
manufacturing processes.
✓ It is represented with 4500 installed systems worldwide (as of the end of 2006); after the
extrusion machines, it has the most industrial applications.
✓ Laser stereolithography is based on the point-wise solidification of photosensitive
monomers (polymerization) using a laser scanning exposure apparatus (galvo scanner).
✓ Consist of a container of liquid monomer, the installation space, which is usually used as a
reservoir, a construction platform (displaceable in the z-direction), and a laser-scanner
unit, which writes the current layer information on the surface of the resin bath.
✓ The platform supports the part by support structures.
✓ This allows for the production of overhangs, fixes unconnected parts of the model, and
ensures the defined building up and subsequent removal of the construction platform.
✓ After the solidification of a layer, the construction platform is lowered by one layer
thickness.
✓ Thereafter, a new layer is applied (recoating), and this layer is exposed to the data of the
new layer and thus solidified. → The process proceeds to the exposure of the successive
layers.
✓ In this way, the part “grows” in layers from bottom to top.
✓ For fast and accurate polymerization, each manufacturer uses different exposure strategies.
Two-photon polymerization
✓ First proposed by Strickler et al..
✓ Resolutions >100nm with surface roughness <10 nm are attainable.
✓ Despite its high cost, TPP was even commercialized by NanoscribeGmbH in 2007.

SEM images of microstructures fabricated with TPP

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✓ Excitation of the PI in the resin, and thereby activation of the curing reaction, does not
occur in the entire illumination path of the laser, as in conventional SLA, but only in the
region of its focal point, called a volume pixel or voxel.
✓ A high-intensity femtosecond pulsed laser can cause molecules to absorb two photons
simultaneously.
✓ As the probability of this phenomenon is proportional to the squared intensity of the laser
pulse, the process is limited to the focal point of the laser.
✓ Instead of UV light, a laser at twice the wavelength (i.e. half the energy) with near-infrared
(NIR) light such as a Titanium-sapphire laser is employed in TPP.
✓ The energy necessary for excitation is nevertheless attained by the combination of the
energies of both individual photons.
✓ Spatially constrained 3D voxel in TPP allows for the curing of shapes inside the resin bath
and not just on its surface.
✓ This eliminates the need for layer-wise production.
✓ Enables fabrication of extremely complex geometries including freely moving parts without
superfluous support structures.
Digital Light Processing
✓ DLP machines are very similar to laser stereolithography machines in construction and
operation.
✓ The main difference is in the type of exposure: it uses a digital light processing projector,
via a lamp.
✓ With the projector, an entire cross-section at a time is always exposed.
✓ The construction time is independent of how much the build platform is occupied with
components and also how complex they are.
✓ As in laser stereolithography, only one material is used for the component and the support.
✓ Therefore, the supports must be added to the record for the component and manually
removed from the finished part.
✓ The components must be post-cross-linked, purified, and finished.
✓ Building materials are acrylates.
✓ “Bottom-Up” Construction Types → A variant of the DLP machine builds from the bottom
up.
✓ Initially, the building platform dives down into a resin bath with a glass floor so that
between the building platform and the glass bottom just one layer thickness of building
material is left.
✓ A DLP projector projects the current component’s cross-section from below through the
glass plate onto this layer and solidifies it.
✓ The building platform and the layer (partially finished) model are raised by a layer
thickness out of the resin bath, the new resin flows in, and the next layer is exposed.
✓ The process is repeated until the part is finished.
✓ An advantage of this design is that very little resin has to be held in the building space and
rapid exchange of the resin is not a problem.
✓ The disadvantage is, as with all solidifying processes through lamps, that the space must be
carefully protected from ambient light.
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Comparison of commercially available SLA systems

Materials
✓ Vat photopolymerization processes use
plastics as well as polymeric materials,
especially UV-curable photo polymeric resins.
✓ No longer limited to conventional polymers,
but the fabrication of composites and even
metallic or ceramic specimens is possible.
✓ To date, SLA is only being utilized to structure
one material at a time.
✓ An example of resins used with these
processes is the Visijet range (3D systems)
✓ There are various integral parts of any
photocurable SLA resin which include
precursor, photoinitiator, additives, absorber,
and filler.
Precursors
✓ These are liquid molecules that link mutually or polymerize when exposed to light for
obtaining a solid three-dimensional network.
✓ Monomers, oligomers, prepolymers, etc. can be utilized based upon specific requirements.
✓ Acrylate-based resins which are based upon radical photopolymerization possess high
reactivities and are available in different types based upon the number of reactive groups
or oligomer types for specific requirements of mechanical and thermal resistances.
✓ They offer the basic advantage of fast build speeds but exhibit high shrinkage during the
printing process, which is their major limitation since distortion of parts occurs.
✓ Another disadvantage is the oxygen sensitivity of acrylate-based resins due to which the
polymerization reaction suffers a setback.
✓ The next important class of resins is epoxy resins which are based upon cationic reactions
that offer reduced sensitivity to oxygen and shrinkage compared with acrylates. → however
sensitive to moisture.
✓ Hybrid systems are also in use utilizing the favorable features of individual precursors.
✓ For example, a combination of acrylate and epoxy resins is very commonly used and results
in low shrinkage materials displaying fast curing rates.
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✓ Monomers used in dentistry: bisphenol A-glycidyl methacrylate Bis-GMA, triethylene glycol
dimethacrylate TEGDMA, urethane dimethacrylate UDMA, hydroxyethyl methacrylate
HEMA.
Photoinitiators
✓ PIs are reactive to light.
✓ Irradiation of PIs with lights of the right wavelength leads to their excitation and thus
initiation of the curing reaction.
✓ The correct choice of PI is therefore important and also depends on precursor type.
✓ It also affects several important SLA characteristics including kinetics, cross-linking density,
mechanical characteristics, etc. to name a few, trimethyl benzoyl diphenylphosphine oxide
TPO, Benzophenone BP, Camphorquinone CQ, Ivocerin—dibenzoyl germanium IVO
Absorbers
✓ Absorbers limit light penetration beyond the desired cure depths.
✓ Precise control is very important for intricate geometries with overcuts otherwise feature
loss will result.
✓ Benzotriazole derivative is a common UV absorber.
Filled Resins (Fillers)
✓ Resins are filled with powders
to fabricate metal/ceramic
parts.
✓ After filling resins with
powders, the parts are printed
using the standard vat
photopolymerization
technique, debonded for
removal of organic resin parts
via pyrolysis, and sintered
using heat treatment to obtain
final dense parts.
✓ Shrinkage coefficients of
different metals need to be taken into account for specific geometrical requirements → To
minimize shrinkage, high filler amounts are required.
✓ It should be kept in mind that the size of the particle should be smaller than layer height.
✓ If the size of particles approaches the wavelength of the incident light, then the scattering
phenomenon becomes important and needs to be effectively dealt with in obtaining final
cure depth and accuracy.
✓ To counteract scattering → difference in refractive index bet. filler and matrix should be
minimal.
✓ If nano-sized particles are added, then the properties of parts obtained can be further
improved.
✓ The inorganic fillers are responsible for mechanical properties especially for the strength
and abrasion resistance of the material.
✓ The fillers can be classified on the size of the particles: macro fill, microfill, hybrid, mini fill,
micro-hybrid, nanofiller, and the range of size of filler particles is from 5 nm to 50 m.
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✓ Mostly fused silica, glass, quartz are used in dental composites as fillers.
Additives
✓ Many additives are added to counteract the negative effects of the high-volume fraction of
solid loading that can change resin flow behavior, affect coating mechanism, increase the
requirement of mechanical forces for lifting platform, and so on.
✓ Rheological additives, as well as stabilizers, are added which can enhance solid loading,
their shelf life as well as stability.
✓ The particles agglomerate and sediment during the process, which can be prevented by
using oligomeric surfactants, oleic acid (long-chain acid), or phosphine oxides to obtain
homogeneity in ceramic/metal powder distribution.
✓ Post-Processing
Comparison of different AM Techniques

✓ When compared to other additive manufacturing (AM) technologies, typical SLA processes
exhibit superior resolution and better surface qualities but at slower printing times and
higher costs.
Advantages of Vat Photopolymerization Processes
✓ Highly detailed Structures
✓ High accuracy
✓ Good surface finish
✓ The process can be accomplished with a single laser and optical system
✓ Defect-free layers are obtained by the use of recoating blades
✓ Relatively quick
✓ Larger build volumes are possible.
✓ A wide range of materials
✓ Wall thickness from 50-150 µm.
Limitations of Vat Photopolymerization Processes
✓ Requirement for support structures
✓ Requirement for post-curing
✓ The use of recoating blades tends to increase the process cost
✓ Lengthy post-processing time due to need for scrubbing to achieve complete material
removal
✓ Limited raw materials can be used.

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✓ Purely UV curable systems are brittle and change properties over the lifetime of products.
✓ Handling of resins is an extremely cumbersome and messy process.

✓ In the field of medicine, for example, craniofacial implants from hydroxyapatite;

✓ In the field of dentistry, for example, the creation of crowns; as well as hearing aids,
prostheses, drug delivery systems like microneedles
✓ AM printed customized tablets, medical imaging, tissue engineering, regenerative
medicines, bioprinting.
✓ High-performance material SLA parts find multiple applications in the automobile and
aircraft sectors.
✓ Silicones possessing high elasticity find application in soft robotics.
✓ Epoxies possessing considerable strengths that undergo post-curing find varied structural
applications.
Summary:: VPP
✓ Versatile technology with varied applications
✓ The spectrum of functional parts obtained from this route is appreciably broad.
✓ This process offers excellent accuracy and surface properties to its parts.
✓ DLP-SLA is also a competitive technology for creating microfluidic devices and can offer an
excellent resolution, small and delicate features, good surface finish, and appreciably high
production rates.
✓ Filled resins can offer slightly better thermo-mechanical stability.
✓ However, the printing speeds are appreciably low and the cost is almost the highest for
parts fabricated via this route. Also, the SLA parts are not thermo-mechanically very stable.
✓ Handling of resins is an extremely cumbersome and messy process. This has led to a
setback for this process owing to which it barely competes with other contemporary AM
techniques.
✓ Though soft lithography is not an AM process, yet it is sometimes treated as an effective SLA
substitute owing to its ability to provide a better surface finish than most SLA systems.
✓ It is utilized as an alternative to SLA especially in microfluidic systems where extremely
fine holes and cavities need to be drilled for applications like inkjet printheads.

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3.2 POWDER BASED AM (Powder Bed Fusion - PBF)
Understanding Needed
✓ Sintering is a thermal process of converting loose fine particles into a solid coherent mass
by heat and/or pressure without fully melting the particles to the point of melting.
✓ Common particles that are
sintered together include metal,
ceramic, plastic, and other
various materials.
✓ Sintering is a heat treatment
commonly used to increase the
strength and structural integrity
of a given material.
✓ Powder metallurgy processes use
sintering to convert metal
powders and other unique
materials into end-use parts.
LS/SLS, LM/SLM, EBM
✓ The laser sintering (LS) process uses a laser source to provide thermal energy and
selectively fuse particles of powder material into complex three-dimensional
shapes in a layer-by-layer strategy.
✓ The selective melting and re-solidification of thermoplastic powders are called laser
sintering (also, depending on the manufacturer: selective laser sintering), laser fusing, or
laser melting.
✓ The term laser sintering or selective laser sintering is used preferably for machines that
process plastics.
✓ Laser melting is a laser sintering process. It was developed in particular to process metal
parts that need to be very (> 99%) dense. The laser melts the material completely.
✓ Therefore, it produces a local (selective) melt pool that results in a fully dense part after re-
solidification. The process is generally called selective laser melting, SLM. There are some
proprietary names as well such as “CUSHING”, which is an acronym for “cladding” and
“fusing”.
✓ If an electron beam is used instead of a laser the process is called electron beam melting
(EBM), and if the energy is provided by a radiator through a mask, it is called selective mask
sintering.
✓ Sintering processes in general do require neither bases to build the parts on nor supports
to link the parts to the bases because the loose powder surrounds and stabilizes the part
during the build.
✓ While this is true for plastic processes, metal parts are an exception.
✓ They use bases and consequently supports as well, mainly to prevent the parts from
warping during the build process.
A few traits are common to each PBF process. These include:
1. A thermal source that enables powdered particles to fuse
2. A control mechanism to control fusion to a specified area of every layer

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3. Mode of addition of a subsequent layer
4. Mode to smoothen each layer before the addition of the next layer.
Understanding the mechanism of the SLS process, which is the basis of almost all PBF techniques,
is an important part of comprehending the mechanism of PBF processes and is considered a
baseline for comparison.
working principle
✓ A counter-moving roller set levels powder across the build area.
✓ This powder is of around 0.1-millimeter thickness.
✓ The fusion of thin layers of this powder takes place in the process of SLS.
✓ The part is built inside an insulated chamber with a nitrogen atmosphere for preventing
oxidation as well as powder material degradation.
✓ The temperature of the powder is slightly higher than its melting and/or glass
transition temperature.
✓ Higher temperature around the component being fabricated is ensured with the help of
an infrared or resistive heating device kept above the build platform.
✓ A similar infrared heating device is kept above the feed cartridge for preheating the
powder before spreading it upon the build area.
✓ Maintaining elevated
temperatures at these
two locations (above
build platform as well as
a preheating point)
amounts to a
considerable reduction in
requisite laser power for
powder fusion, as well as
in part warping/curling
owing to non-uniformity
in the expansion and
contraction.
✓ Upon completion of a
desirable layer formation
and required preheating,
a concentrated carbon
dioxide laser is directed
towards the powder bed and its movement enables the thermal fusion of the powdered
material layer into the desired slice cross-section.
✓ The powder in the vicinity is not affected owing to the highly controlled laser beam.
✓ Surrounding powder supports the proper build of the component.
✓ Once a complete layer is formed, the build table lowers by an amount equal to that of a
layer thickness.
✓ Repetition of the entire process takes place till the fabrication of the complete
component is accomplished.

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✓ To enable the removal of the final component, some cool-off period is normally
required.
✓ This is needed because of two reasons: (1) premature exposure of the part to ambient
temperature will lead to warping because of unequal contraction; (2) to allow parts to
uniformly arrive at a manageable handling temperature.
✓ Finally, the components are taken out.
✓ After the removal of loose remains of powder, the necessary finishing operations are
performed before finalizing the parts.
Various PBFs are obtained by changing the mode of fusion of powdered material.
✓ Four variable ways to obtain fusion can be:
(1) sintering in the solid-state;
(2) sintering in a liquid state;
(3) chemical binding; and
(4) Complete melting.
✓ Liquid phase sintering, as well as melting, are most prominently used.

Powder Bed Fusion Process Variants (Additional Content)

✓ Based upon differences in powder delivery techniques, heating methods, ambient
conditions, energy inputs, optics and remaining important features, many variants of PBF
processes have evolved. These mainly include:
1. Low-temperature laser-based Processing – LS/SLS, DMLS
2. Metal and ceramic laser-based Systems - SLM
3. Electron beam melting (EBM)
4. Line- and layer-wise systems.
Laser Sintering – Selective Laser Sintering (LS – SLS)
✓ The term laser sintering or selective laser sintering is used preferably for machines that
process plastics.
✓ They are commercialized by 3D Systems, USA, and EOS GmbH, Germany.
✓ They consist of a build chamber to be filled with powder with a grain size of up to 50 μm
and a laser scanner unit on top that generates the x-y contour.
✓ The bottom of the build chamber is designed as a movable piston that can be adjusted at
any z-level.
✓ The top of the powder bed defines the build area in which the actual layer is built.
✓ The whole build chamber is preheated to minimize laser power and completely flooded by
shielding gas to prevent.
✓ The laser beam contours each layer. The contour data are obtained from the slice data of
each layer and directed by the scanner.
✓ Where the beam touches the surface, the powder particles are locally molten.
✓ The geometry of the melting spot is defined by the laser beam diameter and the traveling
speed.
✓ While the beam travels further, the molten material solidifies by thermal conductivity into
the surrounding powder.
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✓ Finally, a solid layer is achieved. After solidification of one layer, the piston at the bottom is
lowered by the amount of one layer thickness, thus lowering the whole powder cake
including the semi-finished part.
✓ The emerging space on the top of the powder is filled with new powder taken from the
adjacent powder feed chamber using a roller.
✓ The roller rotates counter-clockwise to its linear movement to spread the powder
uniformly. This procedure is called recoating.
✓ After recoating, the build process starts again and processes the next layer. The whole
process continues layer by layer until the part is completed.
✓ In most cases, the top layer is made using a different scan strategy to improve its solidity.
✓ After the build is finished and the top layer is processed, the whole part, including the
surrounding powder, is covered by some layers of powder.
✓ This so-called powder cake has to be cooled down before the part can be taken off by
removing the part from the surrounding powder.
✓ The cool-down can be done in the machine; however, cooling down in a separate chamber
allows the immediate beginning of a new build job.
✓ Sintering allows the processing of all classes of materials: plastics, metals, and ceramics.
✓ The machines are basically very similar.
✓ They are either adapted to the different materials by software (minor hardware changes)
✓ In this case, the recoating systems are specially designed for the materials to be processed;
✓ Roller-based systems for plastic powders → hopper-type systems for plastic-coated foundry
sand → metal processes wiper-type systems are used as well.
✓ While the standard plastic material is a polyamide of the PA11 or PA12 type, today’s cutting
edge materials mimic the properties of PC, ABS, PA plastics and deliver parts that show
engineering design elements, such as film-hinges and snap-fits.
✓ Although the high-temperature system EOS 395 (2011) is currently the only commercial
system that processes, even high-performance plastics (PEEK,) it marks a future trend.
✓ Materials for laser sintering are available unfilled or filled with spherical or egg-shaped
glass, aluminum, or carbon particles in order to improve the stability and heat deflection
temperature. Even flame-retarding materials are available.

Materials
Ideally, PBFs can fabricate components from any material that can undergo melting and re-
solidification. A special class of materials that are best compatible with these PBFs include:
✓ Thermoplastic materials, owing to a low melting point, thermal conductivity, balling
tendency
✓ Polyamide (PA) for plastic components of functional parts
✓ Glass-filled PAs to make parts extra strong and rigid with reduced ductility
✓ Polystyrene-based materials with lesser residual ash content in investment casting
✓ Amorphous polymer materials tend to create porous structures
✓ Crystalline materials for high density, better surface as well as mechanical traits, but their
shrinkage, curling, and distortion exceeds that found in their amorphous counterparts

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✓ Elastomeric thermoplastic polymers for high flexibility
✓ Biocompatible materials for specific uses
✓ Numerous proprietary metals, for example, RapidSteel, RapidSteel 2.0 by DTM Corp.,
LaserForm ST-100
✓ Metal alloys such as Ti–6Al–4V, steel alloys, CoCrMo, Inconel, etc. Initially, SLS was
employed for plastic prototypes.
✓ However, today these processes are utilized for a broad range of metallic, polymeric,
composite, and ceramic raw materials.

Process Parameters and Modelling

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Processing Temperatures (TProcessing)

✓ TProcessing is an important parameter in the case of sintering in the solid-state.
✓ Normally in the case of sintering, TProcessing is kept in the range of half of (M.T.) absolute and
M.T., where M.T. stands for melting temperature.
✓ The diffusion rates are directly proportional to the temperatures.
✓ This is the reason behind the rapid increment in sintering rates as the temperatures
approach the M.T. for a given material.
✓ This is modeled with a modified Arrhenius relationship.
Total Free Energy (Es)
✓ The product of the total surface area of the particle (Sa) and surface energy per unit surface
area (γs) is called total free energy (Es), which is another important parameter in the case of
solid-state sintering processes.
✓ This is, however, subject to the constancy of material, temperatures, and atmosphere.
✓ It can thus be mathematically expressed as Es= γs x Sa for a given material, temperature, and
atmosphere.
✓ This needs to be minimized for effective sintering. Fusion of particles at higher
temperatures tends to lower surface area and, in turn, surface energy.
✓ This leads to reduced sintering rates and longer times, which are desirable to lower
porosities to a remarkable degree.
Surface Area Bed/Volume Ratio of Particle (SAbed/VRparticle)
✓ The powder bed surface area to particle volume ratio is directly proportional to the force of
free energy driving.
✓ The practical implication of this fact is that particles of small size will be subjected to an
increased driving force for necking as well as consolidation.
✓ This amounts to enhanced sintering at reduced temperatures of small particles as
compared to their bigger counterparts.
Particle Dimensions
✓ “Particle dimension” refers to the size of the particles used as raw material.
✓ Finer particles result in a smooth surface finish as well as accuracy in parts.
✓ However, they are extremely difficult to manage.
✓ Large particles on the other hand, are easy to manage but restrain the feature size,
accuracy, surface finish as well as least layer thickness.
Raw Material Thermal Properties
✓ Most of the raw materials compatible with PBFs exhibit about 3–4% shrinkage, thereby
increasing the tendency of the part to distort.
✓ Lower thermal conductivity is desirable in raw materials.
✓ This is chiefly because it is possible to control the melt pool as well as solidification rates in
case of lower thermal conductivity.

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Powder Handling (Additional Content)
✓ The basic requirements of any effective powder delivery system are:
1. The capacity of the powder reservoir should be enough to support the entire build height
without the need to refill during the process.
2. The measured and exact amount of powder should be transferred from the reservoir to
build substrate.
3. Thin and even layers should be smoothly deposited over previous layers.
4. Spreading of the current layer should not disturb previous layers due to excess force.
5. It should possess the capability to render flowability (that is, reduced owing to reduced
particle dimensions) to powder for effectiveness in the delivery.
6. It should be able to provide an inert atmosphere to powders to keep a check upon powder
reactivity and consequent damages.
7. It should limit the formation of airborne particles that can seriously hamper the
effectiveness of related AM systems.
8. It should be able to provide as small particles as feasible while effectively dealing with all
the above issues for good quality parts.
9. Different systems of powder delivery.
a. dual-feed cartridges (used in SLS systems) - most common
b. doctor blade
c. Hopper feeding mechanism.
d. Ultrasonic vibrations enhance the efficiency of both the doctor blade and hopper
feeding system
e. Multi-material processing → a discrete hopper is used for each material.
10. The recycling of the adjoining powder is also an important issue.
11. Due to the constant reheating of particles adjacent to the part, they tend to fuse, as well as
vary in their chemical properties.
12. Their molecular weight also undergoes changes.
13. Recycling can be either frequent or restricted depending upon the changes in powder
materials.
14. Negligible changes in powder properties → can be frequently recycled.
15. Drastic changes in powder → control methods need to be adopted.
16. One such method is mixing of used and unused powders.
→ sometimes lead to inconsistencies.
17. Another approach to recycling issues can be based on the MFI (melt flow index) of powder.
→ better method
18. Normally a fraction of the used powder is always wasted.
19. The cost of the process increases with an increased requirement of recyclability of
powders.

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EBM - Electron Beam Melting
✓ The local melting of the material can be achieved by an electron beam that replaces the
laser. → called electron beam melting, EBM.
✓ Because electron beam material processing requires a vacuum, a completely sealed
construction is needed.
✓ Arcam AB of Molndal, Sweden presents a family of EBM machines dedicated to special
applications, such as aerospace, medical, or tooling.
Working Principle
✓ The electron beam penetrates very deep and the setup allows a very high scan speed that
can be used for preheating as well.
✓ The process is very fast and works at elevated temperatures.
✓ As a result, stress and distortion are reduced and very good material properties can be
an Electron beam melting, EBM.
The process
✓ Electron Beam
⚫ The electron beam serves as an energy carrier, allowing rapid electromagnetic beam
control.
✓ Hot process
⚫ During the hot
process, the
electron beam
heats each layer
of the build until
the entire
powder
bed reaches an
optimal process
temperature
specific to the
material used.
⚫ As a result, the
EBM process
produces
components
without residual
stresses and has
a microstructure free from martensitic structures.
✓ Vacuum chamber
⚫ The electron beam melting process takes place in a vacuum chamber to ensure a
clean and controlled build environment.
⚫ Vacuum production is an important aspect of the EBM process as it maintains the
chemical specification of the build material.
✓ Sintering
⚫ During sintering, parts are produced free-floating in sintered powder.
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⚫ This allows parts to be stacked tightly and eliminates, or limits, the need for
mechanical support.

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Strengths of PBF-based AM Techniques

✓ The ability of a powder bed to act as support material in polymer-based PBFs leads to
appreciable time-saving in fabricating and post-processing parts.
✓ Ability to incorporate complex interior features like cooling channels, etc.
✓ Ability to fabricate highly intricate parts, especially with the aid of smaller size particles.
✓ In most modern PBF machines, preheating and cooling cycles are undertaken separately,
thereby controlling the build times with the aid of removable build platforms.
✓ PBF machine productivity is appreciably higher and can be compared to other AM
processes.

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✓ Nesting of parts in the case of polymer-based PBF processes are very easy.
✓ Cost, productivity, and build-up times in the case of polymer-based PBF techniques are
appreciably reduced owing to the ability to nest parts without the need for any support
structures.
Weakness of PBF-based AM Techniques
✓ Requirement of support structures in case of metal PBFs for limiting the component
warping during processing.
✓ Porosity is an issue with most PBFs thereby necessitating post-processing in the form of
infiltration/high-temperature sintering to obtain full densities.
✓ Post-processing of metallic parts is costly and consumes a lot of time.
✓ The solid-based PBF process leads to less accurate parts possessing inferior surface finish
as compared to liquid-based techniques.
✓ Spreading and handling fine particles is an arduous task.
✓ In PBFs, lower thermal conductivities of materials are desirable, but this leads to a
reduction in part growth rate and in turn, increased build time. This will in turn enhance
the cost of PBFs.
✓ Total build-up times are higher than most other AM techniques owing to the involvement of
preheating and cooling cycle times.
✓ Most modern PBF machines are expensive.

Summary:: PBF Techniques

✓ PBF techniques are amongst the oldest AM processes.
✓ LS is an extensively popular technique for polymer component fabrication.
✓ Most suitable for low to medium batch production.
✓ Metal-based PBFs based upon laser and electron beams are in huge demand today.
✓ Numerous applications in biomedical, aerospace, and automotive.
✓ This is mainly owing to their ability to fabricate parts with intricate geometries and
enhanced material desirable characteristics like strength as well as aesthetics.

References
❖ Manu Srivastava, Sandeep Rathee, Sachin Maheshwari and T. K. Kundra, “Additive
Manufacturing Fundamentals and Advancements”, CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group, 2020.

❖ Gebhardt, “Understanding Additive Manufacturing”, Hanser Publications, 2011.

❖ Ian Gibson, David W.Rosen, Brent Stucker, “Additive Manufacturing Technologies: Rapid
Prototyping to Direct Digital Manufacturing” Springer, 2010.

❖ Research Articles

Acknowledgements
Kandasamy M, and Akash P, Undergraduate Students for Editing and Proofing

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UNIT - IV
EXTRUSION BASED AND SHEET LAMINATION PROCESSES 9
✓ Extrusion Based System: FDM-Introduction – Basic Principle, Materials – Applications and
Limitations; Bio-extrusion.
✓ Sheet Lamination Process : LOM: Gluing or Adhesive bonding; Thermal bonding.

4.1 EXTRUSION BASED PROCESS

Understanding Needed
✓ Extrusion is a process used to create objects of a fixed cross-sectional profile by pushing
material through a die of the desired cross-section.
✓ It may be continuous (theoretically producing indefinitely long material) or semi-
continuous (producing many pieces).
✓ It can be done with hot or cold material.
Extrusion-based AM processes (MEX)
It is an Additive Manufacturing Process in which material is selectively dispensed through
a nozzle or orifice (ASTM F42 Committee)
✓ “These utilize the basic principle of forcing pressurized semi-molten material out from a
nozzle at either continuous (constant layer thickness) or variable rates (variable layer
thickness) to obtain layers after their complete solidification.”
✓ Bonding of these layers occurs till the complete artifact is obtained.
✓ There are two basic control mechanisms to enable layer formation.
✓ One of these is temperature-based and another is chemical change-based.
✓ In temperature-based systems, liquefication of molten material occurs in the reservoir to
enable its flow through the nozzle and subsequent bonding with the previously deposited
layer/substrate.
✓ In chemical-based systems, the solidification of layers is driven by a chemical change due to
the curing of residual solvents or reaction with air or simply drying.
✓ This process has mainly biochemical applications and a very few industrial ones.
✓ Material Extrusion (MEX) machines have, by far, the largest install base of any AM
technology.
✓ Inexpensive machines are sold to hobbyists at hardware stores, like Home Depot, and
through multiple vendors on Amazon.
✓ Higher-end industrial machines are available through dozens of companies.
✓ While there are other techniques for creating an extrusion, heat is normally used to melt
bulk material just before or during the process of being forced through a nozzle.
✓ In most systems, around material filament is pushed by a set of pinch rollers, which creates
the pressure to extrude.
✓ Material Extrusion technologies work similarly to how icing is applied to cakes, in that
material contained in a reservoir is forced out through a nozzle when pressure is applied.
✓ If the pressure remains constant, then the resulting extruded material (commonly referred
to as “roads” but more technically known as an “extrudate”) will flow at a constant rate and
will remain a constant cross-sectional diameter.
✓ This material must fully solidify while remaining in the deposited shape.
✓ Furthermore, the material must bond to the material that has already been extruded so that
a solid structure can result.

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✓ Since the material is
extruded, the AM
machine must be capable
of scanning in a
horizontal plane as well
as starting and stopping
the flow of material while
scanning.
✓ Once a layer is
completed, the machine
must index upward, or
move the part downward,
so that a further layer can
be produced.
✓ Other Common Names
and Tradenames
• Fused Deposition
Modeling (FDM)
• Fused Filament
Fabrication (FFF)
• Fused Layer Manufacturing (FLM)
Basic Steps
✓ Material loading which is done from a chamber
✓ Liquefying by means of heat (or) pressurizing
✓ Extruding from a nozzle, plotting
✓ Bonding
✓ Finally incorporating support structures.
✓ Newtonian fluid theory is applied for modelling most extrusion processes.

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Extrusion – Fused Layer Modeling

✓ The layer-by-layer deposition of pasty strings is called fused layer modelling.
✓ The process works with prefabricated thermoplastic material.
✓ Coloured parts are obtained when coloured material is used.
✓ The parts need support during the build.
✓ Many of the so-called fabbers work with a simplified extrusion process, some of them even
without the possibility of using supports.
✓ The most popular ones are the BFB 3000, Fabber 1, RapMan, and RapRaP.

❖ FDM is a registered, protected trade name for a fused layer process offered by Stratasys
Company, USA.
❖ Because it was the first commercialized FLM process worldwide, the name FDM is often
used synonymously with FLM even as a generic name.
Fused Deposition Modelling:: FDM
✓ Proposed by S. Scott Crump around the 1980s and commercialized by Stratasys.
✓ An extremely popular and robust AM technique since complicated parts can be obtained in
a reasonable time.
✓ It requires no tooling and minimal human interference.
✓ This can be used to obtain models, prototypes as well as end parts and is based on the
layered AM principle.
✓ Its working involves the uncoiling of plastic filament from its spool which then goes into an
extrusion nozzle.
✓ The choice of nozzle and filament depends upon specific needs.
✓ Melting of material occurs due to the heating element in the Print head which also contains
the nozzle.
✓ Horizontal and vertical direction movement occurs with the help of an automated
computerized mechanism, which is under the direct control of a CAM software package.
✓ Layer formation takes place by extruding specific thermoplastic material directly either on
a substrate or on the previous layer.
Steps in FDM
✓ Exporting 3D solid model into FDM Insight in .stl format
✓ Generation of process plan for controlling FDM modeller
✓ Feeding ABS filament into heating element to bring it into semi-molten form
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✓ Feeding filament via the nozzle and its deposition upon the previous layer/ substrate.
✓ Repeating process to obtain the final part.

• Since extrusion is in a semi-molten state, the fusion of newer material into

previous layers takes place.
• Movement of the head around the x–y plane is followed by corresponding
material deposition as per part geometry which in turn is followed by
lowering of platform to enable deposition of a new layer.
• This process continues till the complete part as per CAD data is obtained.
obtained.
Working Principles of FDM
✓ FDM machine consists of a heated build chamber (approximately 80 °C for ABS plastic
processing) equipped with an extrusion head and a build platform.
✓ Consequently, the machine does not use a laser.
✓ The extrusion head
provides the material
deposition in the x-y area
according to the contour
of the actual layer. →
Plotter-type device.
✓ The build material is a
prefabricated filament
that is wound up and
stored in a cartridge from
which it is continuously
fed to the extrusion head.
✓ The cartridge has a built-
in sensor that
communicates with the
material management
system of the machine.
✓ The head→ material is
partly molten by an
electric heating system Gebisa and Lemu, 2018
and extruded through a
nozzle that defines the string diameter that nearlySchematic of FDM
equals the process
layer thickness.
✓ Usually, string diameters range from 0.1 mm to 0.25 mm.
✓ The platform moves in the z-direction and defines the layer thickness, as the material is
squeezed on the top of the partly finished part.
✓ The process need supports → made by a second nozzle that extrudes another plastic
support material simultaneously with the build material.
✓ The simultaneous processing of two materials indicates that the FLM process is basically
capable of handling multi-material print heads.
✓ Therefore, the manufacture of multi-material parts can be expected in the future.
✓ After deposition, the pasty string (of the build material as well as of the support material)
solidifies by heat transfer into the preceding layer and forms a solid layer.

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✓ Then the platform is lowered by the amount of one layer thickness and the next layer is
deposited → Process is repeated until the part is completed.
✓ There are a wide variety of machines that follow the principle of the FDM process.
FDM is preferred due to
✓ Simple Working principle ✓ Broad range in materials
✓ Large and Simple parts ✓ ABS-M30 → Modeling, Prototyping
✓ Lower Operating Cost ✓ Polycarbonate →Medical, Aerospace
✓ Less time consuming ✓ ULTEM 9085 →High FST Rating
✓ Safe and Office friendly ✓ Automotive, Aerospace
applications
FDM Materials

✓ The most common raw material is ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) plastic which is a
carbon chain copolymer and is obtained by dissolution of butadiene-styrene copolymer
into a mixture of acrylonitrile and styrene monomers.
✓ Acrylonitrile provides heat resistance; butadiene provides impact strength, while styrene
makes parts rigid.
✓ The principle of diffusion welding is utilized which is non-continuous owing to which
material is not uniformly distributed.
✓ This reduces part strength and additional amounts to anisotropic FDM parts.
✓ Polycarbonates, polyphenyl sulphones, polycaprolactone, waxes, etc. are also used.
✓ Water-soluble support materials are utilized with FDM (Stratasys Waterworks) which
quickly dissolves by means of metal agitators with sodium hydroxide solvent.
✓ The Fortus 400 and 900 machines process the high-temperature thermoplastic material
polyphenylsulfone (PPSF/PPSU).
✓ They were the first machines on the market to handle these high-performance plastics.

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Factors affecting the part quality and mechanical properties of the FFF-fabricated
thermoplastic parts

FDM Process Parameters

✓ BUILD orientation
✓ Layer height/thickness
✓ Print speed
✓ Infill density
✓ Infill pattern
✓ Extrusion temperature
✓ Print bed temperature
✓ Raster angle
✓ Raster width
✓ Air gap
✓ Nozzle diameter/
Filament diameter
✓ Contour (shell) width and number of contours

• Raster width: “Raster width is the material bead width used for rasters. Larger values of
raster width will build a part with a stronger interior. Smaller values will require less time and
material.” Smaller value = much time for filling
• Contour width: “Contour width is the material bead width used for contours. Smaller values
of contour width will build a part with a better surface finish. Larger values will require less
time and material.”
• Air gap: “Air Gap sets the distance between the part and the supports when creating
containment supports. Large values might position the support curve too far from the part to
give support, while values that are too small might embed the support curves in the part.”

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• Raster angle: “This angle is for rasters on the bottom part of the layer. The angle is measured
from the X-axis of the current layer to the raster. An increase in raster angle would lead to
more material consumption.”
• Slice height: “The slice operation computes part curves by analyzing cross-sections of the .stl
file. It begins at the bottom of the model and progresses sequentially to the top at a constant
interval known as slice height. Its value is based on the material and tip size used in the
modeller.”
• Orientation: “Part build orientation or orientation refers to the inclination of part in a build
platform with respect to X, Y, and Z-axis. Where X and Y axes are considered parallel to build
platform and Z-axis is along the direction of part build.”

Performance Measures
✓ Build time (BT) :
⚫ Duration spent on an AM machine/modeller in absence of any bottlenecks.
⚫ BT is different from process time or speed despite one being used as a direct indicator of
the other.
⚫ A very important consideration is that superior parts might be desirable even at
considerably high BT requirements.
⚫ Judicial weighing of BT against other design targets is thus mandatory before any final
decision.

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✓ Model material volume:

⚫ “Model material volume (MV) is the amount of raw material used for making the
component.”
⚫ It is a matter of fact that most AM modellers, including FDM, utilize expensive MVs, and
their optimal utilization is of critical importance.
⚫ Also, the MV requirement is different for every application.
⚫ For example, porous scaffolds need minimal MV but service model parts need more;
concept models might need lesser MV but structural parts require fully dense parts; and
so on.
✓ Support material:
⚫ “Support material (SM) volume is the amount of material used as a support for making a
component.”
⚫ A significant amount of saving can be obtained by selecting optimal SM volume.
✓ Production cost: (PC) has the following components:
1. Machine cost = (modeller cost + labor cost + running cost + annual maintenance cost) per
hour × build time
2. Support material cost = (cost of support material spool/volume of material per spool) ×
volume of support material used
3. Model material cost = (cost of model material spool/volume of material per spool) ×
volume of model material used
4. Total production cost = (1) + (2) + (3).
✓ Mechanical properties:
Apart from these, mechanical properties, including tensile, compressive, and flexural
strengths; surface roughness; dimensional accuracy; transverse strength; hardness; creep
characteristics; etc. are also very important and should be similarly considered.

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FDM Applications

✓ Applications include concept models, fit and form models, models to be used for indirect
AM manufacturing applications, investment casting, injection moulding, etc.
✓ These are generated quickly at economic rates.
✓ There are no toxic chemicals involved in the FDM process.
✓ FDM applications can also be utilized to obtain metal, ceramic, multi-material as well as
metal-ceramic components with the help of highly-filled polymeric materials (HPs).
✓ This can be accomplished by the process of HP-FDM and multi-material FDM techniques.
✓ However, parts need to be debound and sintered in this case. (cannot able to understand)
✓ Multi-material parts can be effectively fabricated by this route.
✓ Bio-ceramic, as well as composite scaffolds and three-dimensional lattice structures, can be
obtained by the solvent-based free-forming technique.
✓ Multi-material extrusion-based systems have been utilized to produce PLGA-collagen
scaffolds.
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✓ A hybrid system of FDM with Robocasting has proven abilities of enhanced multi-material
part fabrication and can be used to print conductive circuits on components.
✓ A wide variety of biocompatible materials can be obtained using extrusion-based
techniques.
✓ Devices like an RP robot dispensing for chitosan-HA scaffolds and a bio-extruder for tissue
engineering (TE), as well as polycaprolactone (PCL) scaffold fabrication, have been
introduced by various researchers.
✓ Scaffolds for soft tissue engineering and hydrogels can be fabricated with the help of an
extrusion-based 3D bio-plotting process.
✓ Hybrid bio plotting can fabricate solid biodegradable parts with hydrogels.
FDM Limitations
✓ Restrictions on build speeds, accuracy, and density.
✓ Though appreciably less layer thickness can be achieved, this is possible only with
extremely high-end and expensive modellers.
✓ Sharp corners and interiors are very difficult to achieve owing to the roundness of the
nozzle.
✓ FDM components exhibit high anisotropy and hence need to be carefully designed and
used.
✓ Parts show anisotropic behaviour that can be reduced by properly adjusted build
parameters.
✓ The parts are either used as concept models, functional prototypes, or as (direct
manufactured) final parts.
✓ FDM parts show typical surface textures that result from the extrusion process.
✓ According to the layer thickness and the orientation of the part in the build chamber, these
textures are more or less visible.
✓ Therefore, the positioning (orientation) in the build chamber has a big influence on the
appearance of the part.
✓ Post-processing requires the removal of the supports, which can be done manually, or using
a special washing device.
✓ Finishing requires manual skills and time, but together with artisan capabilities leads to
perfect surface qualities and astonishing results.
✓ It is needless to say that intensive finishing affects the part’s accuracy.

Bio-Extrusion
✓ Technique for creating biocompatible and degradable scaffolds which have the unique
characteristics of acting as a host to livings cells to enable tissue formation.
✓ These are characterized by the presence of both micro (for growth of cells) as well as mini
(for cell adhesion) pores.
✓ Hydrogel usage is common in scaffold creation since it provides a highly non-toxic
biocompatible and conducive atmosphere to the growth of cells.
✓ Hydrogels are a class of water-insoluble polymers that disperse in water and can be used to
obtain rather weak scaffolds.
✓ To obtain stronger scaffolds, melt extrusion-based FDM techniques are utilized.
✓ However, these are inferior to gel-based ones owing to their lesser biocompatibility and
biotoxicity.

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Extrusion Based Processes:: Summary
✓ Extrusion-based processes are common techniques for fabricating thermoplastic parts.
✓ Feedstock materials, binding mechanisms, monitoring systems, filaments, nozzle design,
building strategies, etc. are several aspects that need careful planning and attention.
✓ Simulation tools need development in this field for reducing cost and enhancing
effectiveness.
✓ Surface roughness needs to be minimized and mechanical characteristics need to be
improved for parts made by these processes.
✓ Apart from hardware, the development of good quality pre-processing tools is also
important.
✓ Tool path planning is also important.
✓ Material development, process control, microstructural characterization and design,
modelling, and simulation of data are the four main domains of control.
✓ HP-extrusion is an extremely important and innovative aspect of extrusion-based AM
techniques and can be utilized for the fabrication of a wide variety of material parts.
✓ The development of simulation techniques related to debinding and sintering can go a long
way in increasing the efficiency of these systems.

4.2 SHEET LAMINATION PROCESS

Other common names and trade names
✓ Laminated Object Manufacturing (LOM)
✓ Selective Deposition Lamination (SDL)
✓ Laminated Layer Manufacturing (LLM)
✓ Selective Lamination Composite Object Manufacturing (SLCOM)
✓ Composite Based Additive Manufacturing (CBAM)
Layer Laminate Manufacturing (LLM) /Laminated Object Manufacturing (LOM)
An Additive Manufacturing process in which sheets of material are bonded to form an object.
(As per ASTM F42 Committee)
✓ The oldest and widely known AM LLM process is laminated object manufacturing (LOM).
✓ Originally developed by Helisys, USA, which is now Cubic Technologies, Torrance, CA.
✓ The build material is a coiled sheet of approximately 0.2 mm thickness.
✓ On its down face, it is coated with glue which is activated by heat during the recoating
process.
✓ The machine consists of a build table that can be moved in the z-direction and a mechanism
to uncoil the paper, position it on the build table, and wind up the remaining paper on the
opposite side.
✓ A laser does the cutting of the contour.
✓ To build a part, the paper is positioned on the build table and fixed by a heated roller that
activates the glue.
✓ The cutting of contours out of prefabricated foils or sheets of even layer thickness
according to the sliced 3D CAD file and the subsequent bonding on the top of the preceding
layer is called layer laminate manufacturing, LLM.
✓ The foils or sheets can be made of paper, plastics, metal, or ceramics.
✓ A laser, a knife, or a milling machine can be used as a cutting device.
✓ The bonding of adjacent layers is done by glue, ultrasonic, soldering, or diffusion welding.
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✓ Most of the processes just need one production step; a few require a post-treatment such as
sintering in a furnace.

✓ The overall advantage of LLM processes is the fast build when massive parts are
requested.
✓ The disadvantage is a huge amount of waste, depending on the geometry of the part.
LOM:: Process Description
✓ A feed roll is used to enable the movement of a layer sheet material adhesively coated from
one side in the build area.
✓ This sheet is placed over
the substrate keeping the
adhesive side down.
✓ Then, a heated roller passes
over the layer, and pressure
is exerted which results in
melting of the adhesive
layer and bonding between
the substrate and sheet.
✓ Subsequently, a laser beam
(generally CO2 laser) traces
the outline of one slice of
the part.
✓ The extra material that
does not form the part is
then crosshatched by laser.
✓ This is followed by the
lowering of the platform by
a distance which is
equivalent to deposited

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layer thickness.
✓ Another sheet is then stacked on the previous layer and the heated roller is moved on to
provide bonding between the stacking sheets.
✓ A laser beam directed by a mirror and optical head is utilized for cutting the stacked build
for providing the desired shape and dimensions.
✓ Then again, the build platform is lowered down and the same process is repeated up to the
desired build height.
✓ The excess sheet material is hatched and removed using a laser beam and collected from a
waste take-up roll.
✓ The final component is then obtained.
✓ The unused material is left in place as support material and is diced using a crosshatch
pattern into small rectangular pieces called “tiles” or “cubes.”
✓ This process of bonding and cutting is repeated until the complete part is built.
✓ After part construction, the part block is taken out and post-processed.
✓ The cross-hatched pieces of excess material are separated from the part using typical wood
carving tools (called de-cubing).
✓ It is relatively difficult to remove the part from the part block when it is cold; therefore, it is
often put into an oven to warm before de-cubing or the part block is processed immediately
after the part is buildup.
✓ The bonding and lamination of stacking layers are achieved using real-time heating and
compression by a heated roller.
✓ When a heated roller passes over the stacked sheets, the coating on one side of the
sheet/paper melts and forms the bond.
✓ The build stack is cut by a CO2 laser to provide the desired 3D shape.
✓ During the LOM process, smoke and localized flame are generated and a chimney is often
built into the system to encounter these issues.
✓ The parts need varnishing to prevent de-lamination of the layers.
✓ Two Different techniques in LOM are
• “bond-then-cut”
• “cut-then-bond”
Advantages of bond-then-cut adhesive-based processes include:
a) Little shrinkage, residual stresses, and distortion problems within the process.
b) When using paper feedstock, the end material is similar to plywood, a typical pattern-
making material amenable to common finishing operations.
c) Large parts can be fabricated rapidly.
d) A variety of build materials can be used, including paper and polymer sheets and metal- or
ceramic-filled tapes.
e) Nontoxic, stable, and easy-to-handle feedstock.
f) Low material, machine, and process costs relative to other AM systems.
Advantages of Cut-then-bond adhesive-based processes include:
a) The Cut-then-bond approach facilitates the construction of parts with internal features and
channels.
b) Internal features and small channels are difficult or impossible with a bond-then-cut
approach because the excess material is solid, and thus material inside internal features
cannot be removed once bonded (unless the part is cut open).

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c) Another advantage of the Cut-then-bond approach is that there is no danger of cutting into
the previous layers, unlike in bond-then-cut processes where cutting occurs after placing
the layer on the previous layer; thus, laser power control or knife pressure is less
demanding.
d) Also, the time-consuming and potentially damage-causing de-cubing step is eliminated.

Materials and Process Variants

✓ Thin sheets of paper, plastics, metals, ceramics, cellulose, polycarbonate composites, etc.
can be used as raw materials for LOM.
Process Variants of LOM
✓ Kira’s Paper Lamination Technology utilizes a knife instead of a laser beam to cut each
subsequent layer.
✓ Solido Ltd. (Israel) also utilizes a knife, but solvent is used instead of adhesive.
✓ Some other variants are hybrid additive- and subtractive-based, such as Thick Layer
Lamination from Stratoconception (France), Adaptive-Layer Lamination developed by
LandfoamTopographics, etc.
✓ Helisys, which was the commercial giant of laser-based LOM modelers, ceased operations in
2000.
✓ It has now been succeeded by Cubic Technologies.

Advantages of LOM
✓ No support structure is needed
✓ High manufacturing speed
✓ Large components can be easily made.
✓ Material cost is low
✓ LOM set-up cost is moderate
✓ Low thermal stresses
✓ Low distortion and deformation during processing
✓ No need for a chemical reaction

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Drawbacks of LOM
Despite the quick operation and cheap raw material, LOM has not been widely established
as a prominent AM technology.
✓ Poor interfacial bonding between layers
✓ Only suitable for laminated sheets
✓ Poor surface finish
✓ Dimensional accuracy is less
✓ Difficulty in producing hollow parts
✓ Waste material is not reusable but can be recycled
✓ Skilled labor is required
✓ Time consuming for complex geometries
✓ Smoke and fire hazards
✓ Anisotropic properties along planar and building direction
✓ Layer height is only dependent on the thickness of sheets
✓ Wooden parts having thin cross-sections have poor strength and also absorb moisture
✓ Breaking out of parts may be difficult
✓ Material wastage may be high if the final product does not make use of full build volume
✓ For internal geometries, extra material removal may be quite difficult.
Design and Quality Aspects
✓ Layer thickness generally varies between 0.05 and 0.2 millimeters
✓ The least sectional dimensions obtained is 0.2 millimeter
✓ Restricted suitability for components which can be subjected to shear forces along build
plane axis owing to poor bonding of sheets
✓ As the process generates smoke, the build chamber must be sealed
✓ Achievable tolerances are ±0.1 to ±0.25 millimeters
✓ The roughness of surfaces are typically in the order of 30–40 μm Ra
✓ May require additional finishing processes to enhance surface finish.
Applications of LOM
✓ Prototypes not to be utilized for functional applications
✓ Patterns and cores of castings
✓ Tool models
✓ Decorative products

LOM Processed Components Made of Pre -Ceramic Papers Filled with

Ceramic Powder: Turbine Rotor, 60 mm Diameter Made of Al2O3;
(b) SiC Gear Wheel, 50 mm diameter. (Travitzky et al., 2008 )
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Gluing or Adhesive Bonding

✓ The most popular SHL techniques have included a paper build material bonded using a
polymer-based adhesive.
✓ Initially, LOM was developed using adhesive-backed paper similar to the “butcher paper”
used to wrap meat.
✓ Paper thicknesses range from 0.07 to 0.2 mm.

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✓ Potentially any sheet material that can be precisely cut using a laser or mechanical cutter
and that can be bonded can be utilized for part construction.
✓ A further classification is possible within these processes based upon the order in which
they bond and cut the sheet.
✓ In some processes, the laminate is bonded first to the substrate and is then formed into the
cross-sectional shape (“bond-then-form” processes).
✓ For other processes, the laminate is first cut and then bonded to the substrate (“form-then-
bond” processes).
Ultrasonic consolidation (UC) / Ultrasonic additive manufacturing (UAM)
✓ Joins metallic materials (similar or dissimilar in the form of thin sheets or foils)

Thermal Bonding
✓ Many organizations around the world have successfully applied thermal bonding to SHL of
functional metal parts and tooling.
✓ A few examples will be mentioned to demonstrate the flexibility of this approach.
✓ Yi et al. have successfully fabricated 3D metallic parts using precut 1-mm-thick steel sheets
that are then diffusion bonded.
✓ They demonstrated continuity in grain structure across sheet interfaces without any
physical discontinuities.
✓ Himmer et al. produced aluminium injection moulding dies with intricate cooling channels
using Al 3003 sheets coated with 0.1-mm-thick low-melting-point Al 4343 (total sheet
thickness 2.5 mm).
✓ The sheets were laser cut to an approximate, oversized cross-section, assembled using
mechanical fasteners, bonded together by heating the assembly in a nitrogen atmosphere
just above the melting point of the Al 4343 coating material, and then finish machined to
the prescribed part dimensions and surface finish.
✓ Himmer et al. also demonstrated satisfactory layer bonding using brazing and laser spot
welding processes.

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✓ Obikawa manufactured metal parts employing a similar process from thinner steel sheets (0.2 mm
thick), with their top and bottom surface coated with a low-melting-point alloy.
✓ Wimpenny et al. produced laminated steel tooling with conformal cooling channels by brazing laser-
cut steel sheets.
✓ Similarly, Yamasaki manufactured dies for automobile body manufacturing using 0.5-mm-thick
steel sheets.
✓ Each of these, and other investigators, have shown that thermally bonding metal sheets is an
effective method for forming complex metal parts and tools, particularly those which have internal
cavities and/or cooling channels.
✓ Although extensively studied, sheet metal lamination approaches have gained little traction
commercially.
✓ This is primarily due to the fact that bond-then-form processes require extensive post-processing to
remove support materials, and form-then-bond processes are difficult to automate for arbitrary,
complex geometries.
✓ In the case of form-then-bond processes, particularly if a cross-section has a geometry that is
disconnected from the remaining geometry (e.g., an island within a layer), accurate registration of
laminates is difficult to achieve and may require a part-specific solution.
✓ Thus, upward-facing features where each cross-section’s geometry is contiguously interconnected
are the easiest to handle.
✓ Commercial interest in SHL is primarily in the area of inexpensive paper parts and large
tooling, where internal, conformal cooling channels can provide significant benefits over
traditional cooling strategies.

References
❖ Manu Srivastava, Sandeep Rathee, Sachin Maheshwari and T. K. Kundra, “Additive
Manufacturing Fundamentals and Advancements”, CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group, 2020.
❖ Gebhardt, “Understanding Additive Manufacturing”, Hanser Publications, 2011.
❖ Ian Gibson, David W.Rosen, Brent Stucker, “Additive Manufacturing Technologies: Rapid
Prototyping to Direct Digital Manufacturing” Springer, 2010.
❖ Research Articles
Acknwoldegements
Kandasamy M, and Akash P, Undergraduate Students for Editing and Proofing

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UNIT - V
PRINTING PROCESSES AND BEAM DEPOSITION PROCESSES 9
✓ Droplet formation technologies (Material Jetting): Continuous mode - Drop on Demand
mode
✓ Three-Dimensional Printing (Binder Jetting) – Advantages; Bioplotter
✓ Beam Deposition Process: LENS (Directed Energy Deposition) - Process description
✓ Material delivery - Process parameters - Materials - Benefits – Applications.

5.1 MATERIAL JETTING PROCESS

Definition: An Additive Manufacturing process in which droplets of build material are
selectively deposited. (According to ISO/ASTM)
Timeline
✓ 2D inkjet printing (IJP) came into being in the 1960s. (Ex.: HP, Canon)
✓ 3D IJP emerged around two decades later basically for rapid prototyping requirements.
✓ Bill Master→ filed patents → founded Perception Systems, Inc. → BPM Technology.
✓ Innovated ballistic particle manufacturing technology.
✓ 1994 → first commercialized machine → Solidscape.
✓ 1996 → multi-jet printing → trade names as MJM and Thermojet.
✓ 1998→Polyjet technology→ by Objet(Israel-based company → merged with Stratasys in 2012).
Variants of Material Jetting
MJ modellers are provided by various AM providers such as Optomec Inc., 3D Systems Corp.,
Stratasys, Luxexcel, etc.
Different variants cover different commercial processes including
✓ Ballistic particle manufacturing (BPM)
✓ Drop-on-demand (DOD)
✓ Laser-induced forward transfer (LIFT)
✓ Liquid metal jetting (LMJ)
✓ Multi-jet modelling (MJM)
✓ Multi-jet printing (MJP)
✓ Nano Metal Jetting© (XJet) (NMJ)
✓ NanoParticle Jetting™ (XJet) (NPJ)
✓ Aerosol Jet®
✓ Polyjet®
✓ Printoptical© Technology
✓ Thermojet printing
working principle of MJ includes:
✓ The first step involves heating of resin in the range of 30–60°C for optimizing printing
viscosity.
✓ The second step involves traveling of printhead above the build platform and
corresponding jetting/deposition of a multitude of tiny photopolymer droplets at
prescribed locations.
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✓ In the third step, the printhead which has an attached UV light is responsible for curing and
solidification of the deposit for the creation of a part layer.
✓ In the fourth step, movement of the build platform in the downward direction by a depth
equal to one layer thickness takes place to enable the formation of the next layer.
✓ The entire process is repeated till the complete part is fabricated.

Droplet Formation Techniques

The basic idea behind material jetting/inkjet printing is the generation of small droplets of
material and their deposition over a substrate to develop a specific pattern.
✓ MJ offers the highest Z-axis resolution (minimum 16-micron size layers) amongst all
other AM techniques.

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✓ Main modes of inkjet technology used for deposition (1) continuous stream inkjet (CIJ) and
(2) drop-on-demand (DOD) techniques.
✓ The difference between a continuous stream and DOD is the timing of droplet generation.
✓ In the continuous stream, the droplets are generated by breaking up the continuous stream
of droplets through an ejection nozzle, whereas in DOD droplets are generated whenever
required.
✓ Thus, in the case of the continuous stream technique ejection of droplet stream and its
corresponding recycling via gutter continues even in the non-working state of the printer.
✓ In contrast, a DOD inkjet printer is supposed to eject an ink droplet only when commanded
for the same and not continuous.

Categories of inkjet printers

Continuous Stream InkJet Technology (CIJ)

✓ Ink droplets are constantly created in this approach → Pressurized liquid pushes a liquid
column through a nozzle of small diameter which leads to the creation of droplets.
✓ In CIJ, the jet breaks naturally at a wavelength characterized by its diameter.
✓ This is because surface energy for a sphere is lower than that for a corresponding cylinder
of a similar volume.
✓ Tuning of this breaking phenomenon can be accomplished to achieve specific rates of
droplet formation with the creation of regular known frequency disturbance with a
piezoelectric element.
✓ For achieving a complex pattern, controlling the position of a droplet train upon a substrate
as well as selecting pre-specified droplets from the stream is important once the droplet
train has initiated.
✓ One popular way of controlling these factors is the induction of charge into droplets
immediately after they are created and their subsequent deflection on a flight using an
electric field.

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Continuous inkjet printer systems
✓ Ink droplets are continuously ejected, and the ejection is pumped by a piezoelectric crystal.
✓ The ink droplets are
selectively charged
via the printing
signals.
✓ The charged droplets
are deflected into a
gutter for
recirculation when
passing through an
electric field, while
the uncharged
droplets are ejected
onto the matrix to
form an image.
A: In a binary deflection
system, the uncharged
droplets are printed onto
the matrix and a single
nozzle can only print at
one dot position;
B: In a multiple
deflection system, the
charged droplets are
deflected onto the
matrix.
⚫ Multiple dots are
deposited per
nozzle.

Advantages of the CIJ mode:

✓ Performs printing at high speed, and thus is very useful in an industrial environment.
✓ The printing nozzle is not easily clogged, as the ink droplets are generated continuously and
volatile inks are used to allow rapid drying.
✓ However, the resolution can be reduced due to the high speed of printing.
Disadvantages of the continuous inkjet printer include:
(1) inks are restricted to those that can be charged; and
(2) the printer is relatively expensive because of the requirement for drop selection, a recycling
system, and
(3) generally, high maintenance cost.
Drop-on-Demand Inkjet Technology
✓ In contrast to the continuous inkjet printer, the drop-on-demand (DOD) inkjet printer
ejects the ink only when it is required.
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✓ The DOD eliminates the complex droplet charging, deflection, and recycling system
required for the continuous inkjet printer, and allows smaller drop size generation and
higher placement accuracy.
✓ The ejected drop size approximates the diameter of the orifice, and less than 20 μm
droplets can be achieved.
✓ The DOD printer relies on a pressure pulse created to form ink droplets. The method used
to generate this pressure pulse defines the primary subclasses of the DOD printer, namely
thermal, piezoelectric, acoustic, electrostatic, electrohydrodynamic (EHD), and valve
methods.
✓ The first two are dominant in modern inkjet printing, EHD is becoming prominent, and the
others are still in the developmental stage.

A: Mechanism. Ink is rapidly heated to a high temperature to vaporize which

creates a bubble at the surface of a heater causing a pressure pulse that
exudes ink droplets through the nozzle . The vapor bubble collapses, as the
ink droplets are ejected, thereby generating a force to refill the ink;
B: Thermal “roof-shooter” configuration;
C: Thermal “side-shooter” conf iguration

✓ The development of the thermal inkjet printer was inspired by the natural process of water
boiling to form water bubbles.
✓ In this technology, the ink in the ink chamber is rapidly heated up to a high temperature
(350 to 400 °C) to vaporize.
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✓ The vaporization promptly creates a bubble at the surface of a heater (resistor), causing a
pressure pulse to push the ink droplets out through the nozzle.
✓ As the ink droplets are ejected, the vapor bubble collapses, which generates a force to refill
the ink.
✓ The entire procedure is fast, taking less than 10 microseconds.
✓ Depending on the location between the nozzle and the heater, the thermal DOD printer can
adopt either “roof-shooter” or “side-shooter” configurations.
✓ The “roof-shooter” has the nozzle located on the top of the heater, while the nozzle is
located nearby the heater in the “side shooter”.
✓ The thermal inkjet printer offers high nozzle density and generates small ink volume (150
to 200 picoliters, pl, 10-12 of a liter), however, the ink chemistry is limited to vaporizable
and thermally stable inks.
(A picoliter is a trillionth (one-millionth of a millionth, or 10 to the -12th power) of a
liter, which can be represented numerically as 0.000000000001/liter. The prefix pico
denotes a trillionth part, just as the prefix nano denotes the billionth part.)

PolyJet / MJM
✓ MJ by the company Objet is called PolyJet.
✓ 3D Systems calls it MultiJet Modeling
(MJM).
✓ The machines are commonly referred to
as Thermojet printers.
✓ MJM systems consist of a building
platform moving in the vertical direction
and a print head overhead in the linear
direction pushing the building material
through multiple parallel nozzles in
layers.
Advantages of MJ
✓ Possibility of utilizing more than one
printing head simultaneously, which gives them the ability to print special parts.

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✓ For example, fast printing by covering the build surface entirely in a single pass and
printing multiple materials simultaneously.
✓ Additionally, appreciably better surface qualities are obtained owing to quite small drops
being jetted.
✓ Easy operation and safe to handle owing to the absence of loose powder.
✓ Good surface finish.
✓ No need for post-curing
✓ Components fabricated via MJ have homogeneous mechanical and thermal properties.
Drawbacks of MJ
✓ Since an appreciably small amount of materials (in the form of small droplets) is jetted over
a small build area, build rates are generally less.
✓ Build volume is small
✓ Material cost is higher
✓ Support structure is needed
✓ Time to print/develop newer materials is quite long.
Materials for Material Jetting
✓ Material jetting is used to print/deposit materials such as polymers (for example ABS,
polyamide, PLA, etc.), metals, ceramics, and polymer composites.
✓ In addition to individual materials, a combination of different types of materials can be
printed using MJ.

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Applications of MJ
✓ Optomec Aerosol Jet printing technology effectively produces 3D printed electronics.
✓ Luxexcel uses MJ for making prescription eyewear
✓ Light honeycomb structures
✓ Scaffolds for tissue engineering
✓ Custom anatomical models
✓ Biosensors
✓ IJPs conductive circuit traces
✓ LCD color filters and plasma displays.

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Material Jetting::Summary
✓ Owing to simplicity, high-speed, economical, enhanced resolution as well as brilliant part
characteristics, IJP is gaining an edge as a product fabrication tool for varied parts
possessing different degrees of intricacy and sophistication.
✓ Currently, MJ is the only technology that offers voxel-level material property and colour
tuning.
✓ MJ machines utilize mainly two droplet mechanisms, namely CIJ and DOD.
✓ However, nowadays, almost all material jetting machines use DOD mechanisms.
✓ Despite the growth of AM related to material jetting technologies, several aspects in this
field are still unexplored.

5.2 BINDER JETTING

Timeline
✓ This technique became so popular that AM techniques have long been used synonymously
with 3D printing, which is actually a misnomer since 3D printing is one special BJ process.
✓ BJ → Michal J. Cima and team 1989 @ MIT → “3D printing” (3DP)
✓ A new BJ technique → HP around 2014 utilized an integrated heating device.
✓ It was claimed that a speed enhancement of about ten times over competitive AM
techniques like laser sintering was obtained using this principle.
Variants of Binder Jetting
✓ three-dimensional printing (3DP) ✓ Plaster-based 3D printing (PPP)
✓ powder bed/inkjet head 3D printing ✓ MultiJet Fusion™ (Hewlett-Packard
(PBIH) Development Company)
✓ inkjet printing (IJP) ✓ Digital Metal® (Höganäs AB)
✓ ColorJet Printing (CJP) (3D Systems ✓ Z printing
Corp.)

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Definition: An Additive Manufacturing process in which a Liquid Bonding agent is
selectively deposited to join powder materials. (According to ISO/ASTM)
Working Principle
✓ The Process BJ works on the principle of deposition of the liquid binder at prespecified areas
as per the 3D CAD model.
✓ BJ is an AM process in which selective deposition of liquid binder over a powder surface takes
place resulting in the joining of powder particles.
✓ The liquid binding agent in the form of droplets is deposited through the printhead followed
by the lowering of the platform to add a subsequent powder layer and binding agent.
✓ This is repeated till the desired build dimensions are obtained.

✓ Identical to 2D printing in principle; 3D objects are printed as an output to this process.

✓ A thin layer of material in loose powdered form (0.05 to 0.5 millimetres) is first spread
upon the building substrate.
✓ This is followed by consequent deposition of binding material, upon areas that need to be
transformed into a solid part.
✓ The binding agent can be transparent or coloured in nature and is in a liquid state initially.
✓ The binding of powdered material normally involves a chemical reaction that is dependent
upon the method/materials utilized.
✓ This may occur under the following four situations:
• when binder and raw powder are in contact;
• when evaporation of binder occurs owing to its contact with air;
• when the binder is in contact with another chemical mixed with powder; and
• during activation of binder using heat.
✓ The build platform is then lowered in height for deposition of the next powder layer and the
entire process is repeated till the desired part is obtained.
✓ Layer mechanical strengthening due to partial evaporation of water content is needed for
ensuring feature structural integrity as well as the required dimensional accuracy.
✓ These green parts possess low strength and need to be infiltered/sintered during post-
processing in order to obtain the desired mechanical strength.
✓ The basic procedure of the BJ process is summarized below:
• Initial spreading of powder materials upon a platform
• Deposition of binder adhesive upon powder top by printhead at required places
• Lowering of the build platform and spreading next layer upon previously deposited layer
takes place. (space is must be given)
• Formation of the object takes place at points of binding of powder with liquid.
• These steps are repeated till the entire object has been made.

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✓ Printheads (PH) resemble those used in 2D printing, i.e. piezoelectric or thermal in nature.
✓ Binders are supposed to exhibit traits similar to original ink.
✓ The binder should preferably possess lower viscosity (in tens of centipoise range) to enable
its jetting via fine nozzles present in the printhead.
✓ Piezoelectric PHs possess a piezoelectric mechanism connected to a diaphragm that can
push material from the nozzle as drops.
✓ Thermal or bubble jet PHs contain a thermal heating element that initiates boiling of the
binder leading to bubble formation in the PH chamber resulting in it being pushed from the
nozzle and subsequent droplet formation.
✓ Advanced BJ systems by HP utilize the application of detailing agent upon a heat-activated
binding agent leading to the neutralization of any probable binding which results in clearly
separated fused and unfused particles, thereby exhibiting enhanced surface finish.
✓ Also, the heat-activated binding agent results in parts with better material strength as
compared to conventional BJ processes.
Raw Materials
✓ Polymers (such as ABS, PA, PC), metals (such as Al, stainless steel, etc.), sands, and ceramics
can be successfully processed using BJ.
✓ BJ is one of the most suitable AM processes for fabricating ceramic and refractory metal parts
which are generally difficult to manufacture using other AM techniques.
Design and Quality Aspects of BJ (Additional Content)
✓ Process Related Parameters
✓ Spreading speed
✓ Binder saturation level
✓ In-process heating
✓ Thickness of layers
✓ Material Related Parameters

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✓ Powder particle size
✓ Shape of powder particles
✓ Viscosity and surface tension of binders
✓ Powder feedstock considerations
✓ Printhead considerations(Generally, BJ-AM systems utilize a drop-on-demand (DOD) printhead)
✓ Consideration related to powder bed–binder interaction:

Advantages of Binder Jetting

BJ process shares some common benefits with material jetting (MJ).
✓ Ability to print colored components using colored binders
✓ Wide range of material compatibility
✓ Process speed is high
✓ Lower heat-related defects
✓ Larger build volumes
✓ No need for the support structure
✓ Low cost per part owing to inexpensive binders and materials
✓ Negligible or no residual stress.
Drawbacks of Binder Jetting
✓ Part strength is less, especially where no external heat is utilized for binding of parts
✓ Not suitable for structural parts
✓ Multiple post-processing steps are needed
✓ Disturbances during depowdering (taking part out from powder bed build area)
✓ Formation of porosity defects.
Applications of Binder Jetting
✓ BJ has great applications in the printing of components for key industries such as
aerospace, automobile, foundry, biomedicine, jewellery, etc.

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Bio plotter
✓ One of the most unique selling points of AM will be multi-material processing.
✓ The 3D Bioplotter, which is a registered trademark of Envisiontec, Marl, Germany, allows
the processing of a wide variety of materials from plastics, such as polyurethane or silicone,
to bone materials such as hydroxyapatite, and drugs such as PCL (polycaprolactone3) or
materials such as collagen or fibrin for organ printing or soft tissue fabrication.
✓ Up to five materials can be processed using either a heated or a cooled dispenser unit that
is operated by a 3-axis plotter.
✓ Depending on the material, the system uses different hardening processes such as
precipitation, phase transition (liquid to solid), or two-component reaction.
✓ Some materials need post-processing such as sintering.
Binder Jetting: Summary
✓ The BJ process has many unique advantages as compared to other AM techniques.
✓ In comparison with the MJ process, BJ has the unique benefits of high printing speeds, and
the ability to print colored components using colored binders. (In MJ colored component is
possible).
✓ Various factors, including binder related, powder related, feedstock, process hardware, etc.
should be selected at their optimum values to achieve better properties of manufactured
components.

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5.3 DIRECTED ENERGY DEPOSITION
Definition: DED is an additive manufacturing process in which focused thermal energy is used to
fuse materials by melting as they are being deposited. (According to ISO/ASTM)
✓ DED processes are a group of techniques that develop parts by melting the material when it
is being deposited.
✓ “Focused thermal energy” means that an energy source (e.g., laser, electron beam, or
plasma arc) is focused to melt the materials that needed to be deposited to form a layer.
✓ Powder/wire is simultaneously fed along with focused energy and thus, principally, this
process contrasts with PBF where selective melting of the powder bed takes place.

Process variants
✓ 1994–1997, Sandia National Laboratories (New Mexico, USA) innovated a novel AM technique
which they termed LENS (laser engineered net shaping).
✓ Different from other existing AM techniques of the early 2000s → led to a spawning of multiple
similar processes.
✓ One such process was DMD (2002, USA-based POM group).
✓ Different trade names are used for these techniques, like DLD, LC, LMD, DLF, and so on, but
each one of these is more or less a variation of the LENS process.
✓ However, one of these was LCVD, which came into being even before LENS (around the 1980s)
but was not effectively utilized in developing parts till at least a decade after its inception.
✓ 3D welding (1990s, Germany) enabled fabricating parts using welders but its use was more or
less limited till the 1990s.
✓ EBF3 utilizing electron beam and solid wire-based feedstock material was developed (NASA,
2002) which enabled part creation in space without the effect of gravity → lot of research has
been in process from 2010 onwards.
✓ Processes appear dissimilar to each other; the fundamentals are more or less similar for each
of them.
Directed Energy Deposition (DED) - Other Common names and Tradenames
✓ Laser Engineering Net Shape (LENS) ✓ Laser-Aided Direct-Metal Deposition
✓ Laser Metal Deposition (LMD) (LADMD)
✓ Direct Laser Deposition (DLD) ✓ Laser Aided Manufacturing Process
(LAMP)
✓ Direct Laser Fabrication
✓ Laser Chemical Vapor Deposition (LCVD)
✓ Direct Metal Deposition (DMD)
✓ Electron Beam Additive Manufacturing
✓ Directed Light Fabrication (DLF)
(EBAM)
✓ Laser Forming (Lasform)
✓ Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing (WAAM)
✓ Laser Powder Fusion (LPF)
✓ Laser Cladding/ 3D Laser Cladding (LC)
✓ Laser Beam Welding (LBW)
✓ Shape Deposition Manufacturing (SDM)

DED techniques can be classified according to the source of energy.

✓ Based upon the criterion, DED can be laser-based, electron beam-based, and plasma arc-
based.

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Direct laser deposition (DLD)

✓ DED process is a special class of the laser-based additive manufacturing process.
✓ A laser beam continuously irradiates the metal wire or powder preforms for their localized
deposition.
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✓ The substrate shifts suitably in the Z direction to enable the creation of the entire 3D part
from zero medium.
✓ In these systems, a focused laser beam is oriented along with a deposition head that may
consist of either one or many nozzles.
✓ As soon as the deposition of the model material particles takes place along the deposition
profile, an ample quantum (required level) of thermal energy is supplied by the laser to
accomplish their melting leading to the creation of a melt pool.
✓ A heat-affected zone of variable penetration depth thus develops.
✓ Movement of the build plate with the help of CNC with respect to the deposition head takes
place on a complete deposition of the first layer to accommodate deposition of the
subsequent layers and thus the creation of the complete part.
✓ The process can be thermally monitored via different devices like infrared cameras and
pyrometers and the data obtained can be further utilized for feedback or collection.
✓ Fixed build plates with a material composition identical to that of the preform are typically
used in DLD systems.
✓ The substrate can be thought of as the stage for the process.
✓ Shearing off the parts from the substrate is required for their removal.
✓ Parts using a wide spectrum of metallic and ceramic materials like Inconel 625, stainless
steels, H-13 tool steel, Ti alloy, Cr, etc. can be successfully developed via this route.
✓ WC-Co cermet can be fabricated using this DED process.

✓ These systems have CNC-operated X and Y for carrying out raster scanning and a set-up for
delivering laser and model material.
✓ To enable the deposition of raster scans over previous layers, a laser beam is mounted
along the Z-axis.
✓ A variety of companies provide systems based on these processes which can process
different metallic as well as ceramic raw materials.

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✓ Common techniques under this class include Laser Engineered Net Shaping (LENS), which
was initially introduced at Sandia National Laboratories.
✓ LENS has quickly become a key powder-based LB-DED and is being quickly adopted by
research and industry.
✓ Owing to LENS being a pioneer LB-DED, the term is sometimes used synonymously for it.
✓ An actual image of an Optomec LENS® 860 system is presented.
✓ Many net-shaped components can be obtained using LENS technology.

Benefits – 3DMP
✓ Outstanding design freedom ✓ The most economically efficient additive
✓ New- market opportunities method for the production of metallic parts
✓ Innovations and new products ✓ Reduction of manufacturing costs by up to 60%

✓ Higher deposition rates ✓ Reduced number of manufacturing steps

✓ Greater diversity of materials ✓ Lower process costs
✓ Improved mechanical properties ✓ Lower material costs
✓ Large parts up to 3 m³ ✓ Lower investment costs
✓ Economically efficient as of a batch size of 1 ✓ Maximum material utilization

3DMP
✓ Wire instead of powder
✓ 3DMP® uses wire as the starting material. Compared to powder, wire offers the
following advantages:
✓ Nearly 100 % material utilization
✓ Uncomplicated storage
✓ Low material costs
✓ Easy handling
✓ Optimum processability
✓ Extensive selection of materials

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Advantages of DED
✓ Higher deposition rates of metal as compared to other AM process
✓ Ability to repair and clad damaged parts
✓ Relatively higher deposition rates as compared to PBF processes
✓ Ability to process large build volumes
✓ Ability to produce graded structures consisting of different materials
✓ Ability to repair and remanufacture.
✓ The most cost-efficient additive method to produce metal parts → Reduced manufacturing
costs by up to 60%
Drawbacks of DED
✓ Need for a support structure
✓ Accuracy and surface finish are of relatively less quality as compared to contemporary AM
processes
✓ Owing to the merging of energy exposure and melting cycles, modeling such systems
becomes rather complicated.

Applications of Laser Based DED (LB-DED)

✓ Laser-assisted repair
✓ Laser cladding

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DED - Summary
✓ For electron beam DED, a vacuum is required, in contrast to laser-based DED techniques, but
they possess the advantage of better energy density as well as efficiency compared to DLD.
✓ Electron beam-based techniques are a more lucrative means to build/repair parts that exhibit
high oxygen reactivity and also for fabricating functional parts.
✓ Plasma deposition (PDM)- based fabrication is also showing a lot of promise.

References
❖ Manu Srivastava, Sandeep Rathee, Sachin Maheshwari and T. K. Kundra, “Additive
Manufacturing Fundamentals and Advancements”, CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group, 2020.
❖ Gebhardt, “Understanding Additive Manufacturing”, Hanser Publications, 2011.
❖ Ian Gibson, David W.Rosen, Brent Stucker, “Additive Manufacturing Technologies: Rapid
Prototyping to Direct Digital Manufacturing” Springer, 2010.
❖ Research Articles
Acknowledgments
Kandasamy M, and Akash P, Undergraduate Students for Editing and Proofing

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Vat Photopolymerisation

Powder Bed Fusion

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Material Extrusion

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Sheet Lamination

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Material Jetting

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Binder Jetting

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Direct Energy Deposition

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For metal production parts

For polymer part production

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Review of AM classifications and inherent design implications

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 MF8071: ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING
Lecture Notes

References
❖ Manu Srivastava, Sandeep Rathee, Sachin Maheshwari and T. K. Kundra, “Additive
Manufacturing Fundamentals and Advancements”, CRC Press, Taylor & Francis
Group, 2020.
❖ Gebhardt, “Understanding Additive Manufacturing”, Hanser Publications, 2011.
❖ Ian Gibson, David W.Rosen, Brent Stucker, Mahyar Khorasani “Additive
Manufacturing Technologies”, Springer, 2021.
❖ Olaf Diegel, Axel Nordin, Damien Motte, “A Practical Guide to Design for Additive
Manufacturing”, Springer, 2020.
❖ Research Articles
❖ Web Resources

Acknowledgements
❖ Kandasamy M, and Akash P, Undergraduate Students for Draft Reading and Editing
❖ All My Teachers for their Guidance and Blessings
❖ Friends, and Family Members for their Support and Well Wishes

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