Rapid Manufacturing Technology Research Articles

Preface

The 2024 7th International Conference on Intelligent Manufacturing and Automation (IMA 2024) took place in Changsha, China during 12th to 14th January 2024 (virtual form). The conference in this series has been held for seven sessions, and with the successful experience, great reputation, and strong organization team, IMA 2024 was even more successful than ever before. The aims of the Conference were to provide a platform for the exploration of both fundamental topics and new applications of research fields of and related to intelligent manufacturing and automation, bring different scientific communities together, and facilitate the contacts among science, technology and industry. Everyone interested in these fields were welcomed to join the online conference and to give comments and raise questions to the speeches and presentations. About 130 participants attended the Conference whose agenda included keynote speeches, oral presentations and poster contributions. During the keynote speech part, Prof. Xiaogang Liu (Wuhan University of Technology, China), Assoc. Prof. Weimin Huang (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore), Prof. Jinping Liu (Hunan Normal University, China), and Prof. Chenglin Liu (Jiangnan University, China) shared their reports respectively on Intelligent Manufacturing Framework for Key Components of Automobile Chassis, Rapid Manufacturing Anywhere, Anytime, Toward Intelligent Monitoring of Operational Conditions of Complex Processes, and Fixed-Time Consensus Tracking of Multi-Manipulator Systems under Multiple Constraints. It is really a great opportunity to promote academic communication and collaboration worldwide. This volume gathers papers from regular contributions of IMA 2024; each contribution submitted for publication has been peer reviewed and the Editors are very grateful to the referees for their careful support in helping to improve the original manuscripts. The manuscripts accepted for publication cover different topics of intelligent manufacturing and automation: Rapid Manufacturing Technologies, Mold Design and Manufacturing, Intelligent Control Technology, Automated Production Equipment Application, Automatic Control and Information Technology, etc. We would like to thank all the keynote speakers and authors for their efforts in preparing their contributions to this leading international conference. Moreover, we are very grateful to all those, especially the program committee members and reviewers, who devoted time to the evaluation of the papers. It is a great honor to continue with the publication of the proceedings in the prestigious series Journal of Physics: Conference Series (JPCS) from IOP Publishing. Our particular thanks also go to JPCS series editors for once again supporting this Conference. The Committee of IMA 2024 List of Committee Member is available in this Pdf.

Tough hyperbranched polyaryletherketone-based photosensitive resins bearing excellent dielectric property and thermal resistence

Organic polymer materials with low dielectric properties have garnered significant attention due to their convenient preparation process, low cost, and commendable mechanical properties. Such polymers, especially with heteromorphic structures, exhibited great potential for future electronic devices and antennas, particularly accompanied with rapid manufacturing technologies like three-dimensional (3D) printing. In this study, a series of new allyl ether-ended hyperbranched fluorene-based polyaryletherketone (hb-PFAEK-Allyls) were developed. The content of allyl ether photosensitive groups and molecular weight were controlled by adjusting the molar ratio of OH:F loading. UV-curable resins were then prepared through blending between hb-PFAEK-Allyls with trimethylolpropane triacrylate (TMPTA) and ethylene glycol bis(3-mercaptopropionate) (EGBMP), resulting in thiol-allyl-acrylate ternary UV-cured system. The influence of molecular weight of the hyperbranched polymers on the thermal performance, mechanical properties, and dielectric properties of the UV-cured films was systematically investigated. The results show that due to the introduction of hyperbranched structure with high molecular weight, the Tg of the UV-cured film can reach up to 248 °C. Due to the increased molecular free volume in the hyperbranched structure, the dielectric constant of the UV-cured film can be reduced to as low as 2.74 at 1 GHz. Due to the design of thiol-allyl-acrylate ternary UV-cured system, the cured film has excellent mechanical properties, with the highest tensile strength of 61.0 MPa and the elongation at break of 7.0%. This study represents innovative progress on integrating fully aromatic-based photosensitive hyperbranched polyaryletherketone into UV-curable resin architecture. Overall, the herein hb-PFAEK-Allyls-based photosensitive resins exhibit outstanding comprehensive performance and holds great potential for application in advanced 3D printing technology.

Dependence of microstructure and properties in additive manufactured 18Ni300 on heat treatment and surface enhancement

Selective laser melting (SLM) known as a rapid manufacturing technology can fabricate complex and dense metallic components of 18Ni300 with excellent properties. The performance of 18Ni300 can be improved by intermetallics using heat treatment, not including anti-corrosion property. In this study, the effects of heat and coating treatments on microstructure and properties of 18Ni300 fabricated by SLM were investigated. The characterization results indicated that grain coarsening, dislocation reduction, and texture strengthening occurred after the optimal heat treatment. The sequential processing of 820 °C for 2 h and 480 °C for 3 h can maximize the microhardness (increased by 74 %) and ultimate tensile strength (increased by 79 %), accompanying cost of Charpy impact (reduced by 43 %) and elongation (decreased by 32 %). However, excessively high or low aging temperature and time can lead to insufficient performance improvement because of austenite reversal. In addition, the great interface bonding is observed after the laser cladding coating treatment, and the wear resistance maintains well while improving the anti-corrosion property significantly with low quality loss.

Preface

The 6th International Conference on Intelligent Manufacturing and Automation (IMA 2023) took place in Guangzhou, China from January 13th to 15th, 2023 (virtual form). It is committed to bringing professionals and scholars to deliberate on the future of Intelligent Manufacturing and Automation, and bring new horizons and insights to the related researchers and practitioners.With the successful experience of the past 5 years, the 6th International Conference on Intelligent Manufacturing and Automation was an even greater success in 2023. Focusing on “Intelligent Manufacturing and Automation” and related research areas, IMA 2023 brought together leading personnel from all over the world to share views and experiences and exchange ideas, promoted the research and developmental activities in Intelligent Manufacturing and Automation, and facilitated future business or research contacts among all the participants.After months of well preparation and hard work, the proceedings of IMA 2023 covering a bunch of papers, having been checked through rigorous review and processes to meet the requirements of publication, are smoothly published. These papers feature but are not limited to the following topics: Biomedical Manufacturing, Rapid Manufacturing Technologies, Electric Automation, Mechanical Manufacturing and Automation, etc.We had about 80 participations both as speakers and participants, including researchers, teachers, students, industrial experts, and professionals. During the keynote speech part, each keynote speaker was given 30-40 minutes for keynote speech. Among them, Professor Zongmin Ma from North University of China, China performed a keynote speech: Research on the Development Progress and Application of NV Solid-State Atomic Magnetometer. He mainly discussed about the magnetic measurement principle, key measurement technology and integration technology of NV color center in quantum sensing, and put forward the technical development direction for the current technical problems. In addition, he also summarized the preliminary practical applications of NV magnetometers in the fields of geomagnetic detection, nondestructive testing, biomedicine and other fields in recent years. The insightful speeches of each keynote speakers triggered interesting discussions and a good number of informal talks between all the participants.We would like to thank all the participants in the 6th International Conference on Intelligent Manufacturing and Automation. Besides, our special acknowledgement goes to the Journal of Physics: Conference Series, for the endeavor of all its colleagues in publishing this paper volume. May this venture be a spark that ignites many new inventions in the fields of Intelligent Manufacturing and Automation.The Committee of IMA 2023List of Committee Member is available in this pdf.

Machine learning boosts three-dimensional bioprinting.

Three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting is a computer-controlled technology that combines biological factors and bioinks to print an accurate 3D structure in a layer- by-layer fashion. 3D bioprinting is a new tissue engineering technology based on rapid prototyping and additive manufacturing technology, combined with various disciplines. In addition to the problems in in vitro culture process, the bioprinting procedure is also afflicted with a few issues: (1) difficulty in looking for the appropriate bioink to match the printing parameters to reduce cell damage and mortality; and (2) difficulty in improving the printing accuracy in the printing process. Data- driven machine learning algorithms with powerful predictive capabilities have natural advantages in behavior prediction and new model exploration. Combining machine learning algorithms with 3D bioprinting helps to find more efficient bioinks, determine printing parameters, and detect defects in the printing process. This paper introduces several machine learning algorithms in detail, summarizes the role of machine learning in additive manufacturing applications, and reviews the research progress of the combination of 3D bioprinting and machine learning in recent years, especially the improvement of bioink generation, the optimization of printing parameter, and the detection of printing defect.

Development of a Soft Robotics Module for Active Control of Sitting Comfort.

Sitting comfort is an important factor for passengers in selecting cars, airlines, etc. This paper proposes a soft robotic module that can be integrated into the seat cushion to provide better comfort experiences to passengers. Building on rapid manufacturing technologies and a data-driven approach, the module can be controlled to sense the applied force and the displacement of the top surface and actuate according to four designed modes. A total of 2 modules were prototyped and integrated into a seat cushion, and 16 subjects were invited to test the module’s effectiveness. Experiments proved the principle by showing significant differences regarding (dis)comfort. It was concluded that the proposed soft robotics module could provide passengers with better comfort experiences by adjusting the pressure distribution of the seat as well as introducing a variation of postures relevant for prolonged sitting.

Improvement of arc burn defect of initial contact loss of electric hot incremental sheet forming

Electric hot incremental sheet forming, which is used to form hard-to-form sheet metal, is viewed as the one of rapid prototyping manufacturing technologies. However, the non-uniform stress distribution of forming regions would cause an initial contact loss phenomenon between the tool and the sheet, and an electric arc burn of the part surface is obtained due to the contact loss. In this work, a control method of axial pressure response was proposed to judge the stability of the initial contact between forming the tool and the sheet. A power supply on-off device was designed for electric hot incremental forming, and the calculation model of the initial axial force was established during deformation. Meanwhile, two response pressure values were proposed to control the power supply starting and the current intervention and to ensure the stability of the power supply during the forming process. In addition to this, the axial force and the surface of part were analyzed further in electric hot incremental sheet forming.

Pultrusion of large thermoplastic composite profiles up to Ø 40 mm from glass-fibre/PET commingled yarns

Pultrusion is a rapid and cost-effective manufacturing technology for continuous fibre reinforced thermoplastic composite profiles. As the cross-sections of pultruded profiles grow to meet increasing performance requirements, manufacturing challenges concerning heat transfer are encountered. In this study, a two-dimensional finite element model was used to simulate the heat transfer and fluid flow physics of the pultrusion process for increasing diameters from Ø 5–Ø 40 mm. To facilitate the experimental validation, a novel batch-wise pultrusion concept is introduced in which the impregnation process is observed in-situ using a transparent die. The pultrusion studies, conducted on glass-fibre/amorphous polyethylene terephthalate (GF/PET) commingled yarns, show that – with proper design – pultrusion is able to deliver consistent, high quality (void content < 2%) profiles up to at least Ø 40 mm. • Pultrusion of solid thermoplastic composite rods from commingled yarns with diameters up to Ø 40 mm. • Multi-physics FE model simulating the temperature distribution and evolution during pultrusion. • In-situ observation of novel batch-pultrusion process via a transparent die.

3D printed stretchable sensor based on silver nanowires-polydimethylsiloxane

As a new rapid additive manufacturing technology that has emerged in recent years, 3D printing technology can realize the precise manufacturing of complex and flexible sensor structures. In this study, a sensor was fabricated by injecting silver nanowires (AgNWs) ethanol solution into stretchable polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). The substrate was used in two design configurations through a 3D printing template method, i.e. “straight” and “wave”. Compared to the straight sensor, the structural design of the wave sensor could increase the stretch range and sensitivity. In particular, the stretch range increased by 26.1% and the sensitivity improved by 96.0%. The stretchable sensor was successfully applied in pronunciation recognition and gait detection. Therefore, the stretchable sensor is also expected to be further used in fields such as foldable phones and wearable physiological signal sensors.

Mechanical properties, corrosion behavior and cytotoxicity of Ti-6Al-4V alloy fabricated by laser metal deposition

Ti-6Al-4V (TC4) is a widely used biomaterial due to the combination of excellent mechanical properties, corrosion resistance and biological properties. Laser metal deposition (LMD), an efficient and rapid additive manufacturing technology, is very suitable for biomaterial Ti alloy based implants for a customized design. The microstructure evolution and mechanical properties of TC4 samples fabricated by LMD with different scanning approaches were systematically studied in comparison with its wrought counterpart. Large-area mapping (LAM) electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) results show that the one-way scanning produces finer grains and stronger texture index in the 〈 0001 〉 direction than those of the cross scanning equivalents. Moreover, the former has higher ultimate tensile strength and plasticity. Electrochemical experiments and in vitro biosafety evaluations were carried out to verify the feasibility of TC4 for long-term services in the body with respect to MC3T3-E1 cells. This work could promote the employment of LMD to build high-quality metal implants for medical applications. • Large temperature gradients lead to the formation of martensite in the LMD process. • One-way scanning has higher strength and ductility than cross scanning. • Corrosion resistance of one-way scanning is better than that of cross scanning. • The good biocompatibility of LMD TC4 samples is confirmed in vitro.

Influence of 3D printing stress wave on residual stress

As a popular rapid manufacturing technology, three-dimensional printing (3D printing) has been widely adopted in medical, automotive, aerospace, construction and other industrial fields. The stereo lithography apparatus (SLA) is an effective 3D printing method for ceramic printing. However, shrinkage from monomer to polymer and laser stress wave cause residual stress in the formed parts during SLA. Serious quality defects including cracks, warpage and deformation caused by residual stress have remained to be a problem. Basically, the laser stress wave plays an important role in the generation of 3D printing residual stress. In this work, to investigate the propagation mechanism of the laser stress wave, the finite element method was adopted to simulate the SLA process of zirconia. The influence of 3D printing factors on the residual stress was obtained, and we found that the wave velocity of the stress wave obtained by the simulation model was highly consistent with the theoretical wave velocity. Meanwhile, the attenuation formula of the stress wave in the 3D printing process was obtained by fitting to investigate its attenuation law. Based on the above results, the attenuation law of the 3D printing stress wave has a direct influence on the development and variation trend of its residual stress.

Extrusion-based additive manufacturing of forming and molding tools

The production of rapid tools for plastic molding, sheet metal forming, and blanking has always been a critical and important goal for applied research, and a very large number of alternative methods have been proposed over the decades for their production. Among these methods, the use of extrusion-based additive manufacturing (EAM), such as fused filament fabrication (FFF) or similar technologies, has not been frequently considered and needs to be explored extensively. EAM is generally considered a low-cost, low-quality, low-performance class of AM and not suited to produce real functional parts, but only for aesthetical prototypes. However, the capabilities of EAM technologies have greatly evolved and now it is possible to extrude a wide range of materials such as polymeric materials including both the low strength polymeric materials (such as nylon or PLA) and the high strength polymeric materials (such as PEI and PEEK), metals (such as tool steel), and even ceramics (such as zirconia). Starting from an extensive literature review, the purpose of the present paper is to further demonstrate the potential applicability and versatility of EAM as a rapid tool manufacturing technology for different applications in shearing, bending, deep drawing, and injection molding.

Preface

Under original plan, the 11th International Conference on Manufacturing Science and Technology (ICMST 2020) would be held in University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK during September 22-24, 2020. However, due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, ICMST 2020 was broadcasted through web platform (ZOOM) and successfully held during September 22-24, 2020.With the great efforts and generous support of conference committees, reviewers, and session chairs, as well as all participants, presenters, and the main organisers - Chemistry and Materials Society (CMS) group from Hong Kong, China, ICMST 2020 was a complete success. The access to ICMST 2020 web platform was offered to all of attendees, which connects all of them from all over the world. All sessions, oral presentations, discussions, and other activities were offered thought ICMST 2020 web platform.All participants were immersed in the conference. They listened to the presentations attentively, put forward their opinion. And presenters answered questions actively. The entire atmosphere was very well. To make sure that the conference went more smoothly and all participants can present their work without any problem, the main organisers provided a test session for all presenters in advance. They did their best to help all participants to deal with any problems that they encountered. Meanwhile, video presentations were acceptable, which was for those authors that had internet connection problem (unstable or weak internet connection). And the whole conference was recorded for backup purposesonly.The ICMST aims to provide a platform to help the researchers, scholars and so on communicate their thought, idea, innovation and so on about the area of Manufacturing Science and Technology. The conference proceeding was composed of 11 papers covering nanomaterials and nanomanufacturing, Rapid manufacturing technologies, etc. We sincerely hope that you will find the ICMST conference proceeding beneficial and fruitful for your professional development.Prof. Yuyuan ZhaoUniversity of Liverpool, UKList of Conference Committee, Conference Chairs, Program Chairs, Technical Committees, Reviewer Committees are available in this pdf.

Enhancing the electrical properties of inkjet-printed silver ink by electrolyte sintering, photonic sintering, and electroless plating

Conductive inkjet printing is an emerging rapid manufacturing technology in the field of smart clothing and wearable electronics. The current challenge in conductive inkjet printing includes upgrading of electrical performance of printed inks to the equivalent level to traditional conductors such as bulk silver and copper, especially for high-performance electronic applications such as flexible antennas and circuits. Post-treatments are commonly employed to enhance the electrical conduction of inkjet-printed tracks. This research discusses the effects of electrolyte sintering, photonic sintering and electroless copper plating on the DC electrical resistance and resistivity of inkjet-printed silver nanoparticles. From experimental results and measurements, it was found that all the post-treatment methods effectively improved the electrical properties of printed silver ink, but in different ways. The lowest resistance of 4.5 ? (in 0.1 mm ? 10 mm) and thickest (4.5 ?m) conductor were achieved by electroless copper plating, whereas the lowest resistivity (7.5?10-8 ??m) and thinnest (1.0 ?m) conductor were obtained by photonic sintering.

Microstructure and mechanical properties of AI/Fe micro-laminated composites fabricated by ultrasonic consolidation

Ultrasonic consolidation technology is a new method for preparing high-performance laminate composite materials. This rapid consolidation additive manufacturing technology provides a new idea for the integration of complementary functional laminated composite structures. It has great potential for preparation of new generation of complex laminated composite parts, broadening the application field of laminated composite material, and means an advanced 3D additive manufacturing technology for materials and structures. In this paper, it is aimed at Al/carbon steel and Al/Fe laminated composites systems with low cost and multilayer structures, Al/carbon steel and Al/Fe laminated composite samples were consolidated by ultrasonic consolidation process. And the Al/carbon steel and Al/Fe interfacial bonding were studied by SEM and EDS. The hardness and tensile properties of laminated composites were tested by mechanical properties together with the fracture morphology of each interface was studied.

Switched model predictive path control of incremental sheet forming for parts with varying wall angles

As a promising rapid manufacturing technology, incremental sheet forming (ISF) has been tentatively applied in forming prototype parts in many industries, such as aerospace, automobile etc. One of the problems facing scientists and engineers is that geometric accuracies of the parts formed by typical open-loop ISF processes cannot meet dimensional requirements in industries. To address this problem, linear model predictive control (MPC) approaches have been developed that optimize the ISF tool paths to reduce geometric errors. However, in the ISF process, the geometric response of the formed part relative to the tool perturbation is highly non-linear. Due to model mismatch, existing linear MPC path control approaches have been successfully applied to simple geometries only. In contrast, this paper proposes a generic and systematic tool path control approach for forming parts with varying wall angles which have more complex geometric features. In particular, a Switched MPC framework based on linearizing the non-linear ISF geometry response with linear parameter-varying (LPV) state-space models is developed. Then, optimized tool paths to compensate geometric errors were determined by solving convex optimization problems. Experiments were conducted to validate the performance of the developed control approach. The results show that the developed Switched MPC was able to reduce the maximum geometric error by 72 %, 49 % and 80 % in the wall, conjunction and base zones of the formed “funnel”-shaped part respectively. Compared to the Conventional MPC, the Switched MPC improved the maximum geometric error in the wall zone by 0.21 mm. The Switched MPC control algorithm is then shown to be robust on two other complex shapes with varying wall angles.

The influence mechanism of nano-alumina content in semi-solid ceramic precursor fluid on the forming performance via a light-cured 3D printing method.

The use of three-dimensional (3D) printing technology to form ceramic materials can greatly reduce the technical difficulty and cost of preparing special-shaped ceramic parts. In this work, the formation of the 3D structure of ceramic products was achieved through light-curing 3D printing technology. The semi-solid ceramic precursor fluid prepared from nano alumina particles (Al2O3), photocurable polyurethane acrylate (PUA) and isobornyl methacrylate (IBOMA) resin was used to realize ceramic fluid with self-made light-curing 3D printing equipment. The solidification and forming of the ceramic material was achieved through secondary high temperature sintering. In order to reveal the influence mechanism of nano-alumina content in a ceramic slurry on the forming process and performance of light-curing 3D printing, the composition, micro morphology and mechanical properties of 3D printing ceramic samples under different preparation conditions were investigated. The research results show that the relationship of the ratio of alumina to the forming performance was not a monotonic function in the mathematical sense. When the mass ratio of the resin system and alumina was 1 : 2.50, the performance of the formed sample was the best. At this time, the Vickers strength of the sintered ceramic part was 79 GPa, the bending strength was 340 MPa, and the fracture toughness was 2.90 MPa m−2. This work laid a theoretical and practical foundation for the realization of high-quality, low-cost, and rapid ceramic manufacturing technology in the future.

Three-Dimensional Printing on a Rotating Cylindrical Mandrel: A Review of Additive-Lathe 3D Printing Technology

Three-dimensional (3D) printing is a powerful rapid manufacturing technology with wide applicability in scientific research, in industry, and for the home hobbyist. A popular 3D printing discipline...

An approach for dental prosthesis design and manufacturing through rapid manufacturing technologies

ABSTRACTThe development of new products in the scope of health sciences has had an increasingly interdisciplinary aspect, consequence in part, of the creation of diverse applications of engineering for this area of knowledge. Research related to oral health has grown significantly since care with this part of the body is directly linked to the well-being and prevention of several diseases. However, the orthodontic prosthesis has high complexity and multiple variables process in their creative processes. Many of the activities related to the design and production of prosthesis still have characteristics of artisanal work and are loaded with decisions of the dentist surgeon. The proposed approach aims to apply the rapid manufacturing concepts and techniques for the development and production of dental prosthesis, formalizing the process to assure the quality of the product while reducing the prosthesis manufacturing mistakes and time. The proposed approach was validated through two cases: one with a prosthesis in the maxillary and another with the prosthesis in the mandible. Therefore, the proposed approach standardized the design and manufacturing steps, supporting the dentistry with relevant information while improving the prosthesis design and manufacturing process since it uses integrated development environment and reduce mistakes across the whole process.

Surface plasmon induced enhancement in selective laser melting processes

PurposeSelective laser melting (SLM) is an advanced rapid prototyping or additive manufacturing technology that uses high power density laser to fabricate metal/alloy components with minimal geometric constraints. The SLM process is multi-physics in nature and its study requires development of complex simulation tools. The purpose of this paper is to study – for the first time, to the best of the authors’ knowledge – the electromagnetic wave interactions and thermal processes in SLM based dense powder beds under the full-wave formalism and identify prospective metal powder bed particle distributions that can substantially improve the absorption rate, SLM volumetric deposition rate and thereby the overall build time.Design/methodology/approachWe present a self-consistent thermo-optical model of the laser-matter interactions pertaining to SLM. The complex electromagnetic interactions and thermal effects in the dense metal powder beds are investigated by means of full-wave finite difference simulations. The model allows for accurate simulations of the excitation of gap, bulk and surface electromagnetic resonance modes, the energy transport across the particles, time dependent local permittivity variations under the incident laser intensity, and the thermal effects (joule heating) due to electromagnetic energy dissipation.FindingsLocalized gap and surface plasmon polariton resonance effects are identified as possible mechanisms toward improved absorption in small and medium size titanium powder beds. Furthermore, the observed near homogeneous temperature distributions across the metal powders indicates fast thermalization processes and allows for development of simple analytical models to describe the dynamics of the SLM process.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, for the first time the electromagnetic interactions and thermal processes with dense powder beds pertaining to SLM processes are investigated under full-wave formalism. Explicit description is provided for important SLM process parameters such as critical laser power density, saturation temperature and time to melt. Specific guidelines are presented for improved energy efficiency and optimization of the SLM process deposition rates.