Additive Manufacturing of Components for a Ball Machine Prototype

Abstract

AbstractSports have become an important part of most people's lives. Every performance athlete goes through a series of workouts with different sports equipment meant to help their physical condition. Thus, the development of automated sports equipment that can throw a ball with a specific preset speed and trajectory is necessary to facilitate the work of the coach. The paper presents the additive manufacturing process of components for a ball machine prototype used for training athletes. Most of the components in the product's power system are made by additive manufacturing, this choice being conditioned by the appearance of innovative, customized component elements, used in the drive system. Material extrusion is used due to the custom shapes and sizes, specific to the developed product, which innovatively influence the principle of hitting the ball. Fusion 360 is used to design all components, taking into consideration material extrusion technological requirements and design principles. A basic static finite element analysis is performed on the main paddle component to ensure that it can withstand the stress scenario and the results showed that when using HIPS filament, the limit conditions are fully met. CAD files are saved as *.STL files and introduced in Z‐Suite software for parameter optimization according to the functional role of each component. The optimized *.ZCODEX files are sent to Zortrax M300+ machines for material extrusion 3D printing of the components. The final result is a functional prototype of a device that is obtained using mainly additive manufacturing.