Abstract
Recently, 3D printing has become one of the most popular additive manufacturing technologies. This technology has been utilised to prototype trial and produced components for various applications, such as fashion, food, automotive, medical, and construction. In recent years, automation also has become increasingly prevalent in the construction field. Extrusion printing is the most successful method to print cementitious materials, but it still faces significant challenges, such as pumpability of materials, buildability, consistency in the materials, flowability, and workability. This paper investigates the properties of 3D printed fibre-reinforced cementitious mortar prisms and members in conjunction with automation to achieve the optimum mechanical strength of printed mortar and to obtain suitable flowability and consistent workability for the mixed cementitious mortar during the printing process. This study also considered the necessary trial tests, which are required to check the mechanical properties and behaviour of the proportions of the cementitious mix. Mechanical strength was measured and shown to increase when the samples were printed using fibre-reinforced mortar by means of a caulking gun, compared with the samples that were printed using the same mix delivered by a progressive cavity pump to a 6 degree-of-freedom robot. The flexural strength of the four-printed layer fibre-reinforced mortar was found to be 3.44 ± 0.11 MPa and 5.78 ± 0.02 MPa for the one-layer. Moreover, the mortar with different types of nozzles by means of caulking is printed and compared. Several experimental tests for the fresh state of the mortar were conducted and are discussed.
Highlights
Automation processes have contributed significantly to industrial fabrication and economic aspects of production
Mechanics of materials is dealing with the behave of materials which subject to stresses, the mechanics of materials can beis investigated in the stateoformaterials hardened which state
This paper presents an investigation on different end-effectors for extrusion printing involved in the
Summary
Automation processes have contributed significantly to industrial fabrication and economic aspects of production. One of the studies that used concrete mix printing through the extrusion methodology is the study of Le et al [21] They prepared a cement-based mortar consisting of silica fume, cement, sand, polypropylene fibre, and fly ash as the main ingredients. The earlier study by Gosselin et al [23] used two peristaltic pumps, one for the premixed slurry and the other for the accelerator agent They have used different delivery methods and different mixing processes which have a significant effect on the printed product in terms of workability, shapability, and mechanical strength. Austin, Lim, Buswell, Gibb and Thorpe [9] have used a hopper conveyed by a pipe to the CNC machine to print the slurry of the concrete They faced issues regarding the cohesiveness of the mixing, such as high sand content. Different types of nozzles have been used and compared
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