Title: Effect of build orientation in 3D printing production for material extrusion, material jetting, binder jetting, sheet object lamination, vat photopolymerisation, and powder bed fusion

Authors: Mika Salmi; Iñigo Flores Ituarte; Sergei Chekurov; Eero Huotilainen

Addresses: Aalto University Digital Design Laboratory, Aalto University, School of Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Otakaari 4, 02150 Espoo, Finland ' Aalto University Digital Design Laboratory, Aalto University, School of Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Otakaari 4, 02150 Espoo, Finland ' Aalto University Digital Design Laboratory, Aalto University, School of Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Otakaari 4, 02150 Espoo, Finland ' Aalto University Digital Design Laboratory, Aalto University, School of Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Otakaari 4, 02150 Espoo, Finland

Abstract: 3D printing is moving towards end-part production. However, the high-cost structures of 3D printing have a negative impact on technology transferability. Manufacturing time per part becomes a critical enabling factor for whether the technology can be implemented or not. The aim was to investigate the effect of build orientation and the number of parts relative to manufacturing time per part in the material extrusion, binder jetting, vat photopolymerisation, material jetting, powder bed fusion, and sheet lamination. The tested geometry was a Nokia Lumia 820 mobile phone cover. Manufacturing time per part depends heavily on the geometry, orientation, printing process, and amount of parts manufactured in a single build. Manufacturing time per part varies substantially between the tested technologies. The optimal processes in regards to the production speed were found to be powder bed fusion and binder jetting. In addition, material costs and costs related to process time per manufactured part were compared.

Keywords: 3D printing; additive manufacturing; rapid prototyping; rapid manufacturing; fused deposition modelling; FDM; stereolithography; polyjetting; selective deposition lamination; SDL; selective laser sintering; SLS; optimisation; colour jet printing; build orientation; material extrusion; material jetting; binder jetting; sheet object lamination; vat photopolymerisation; powder bed fusion; mobile phone covers; cell phone covers.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCENT.2016.082334

International Journal of Collaborative Enterprise, 2016 Vol.5 No.3/4, pp.218 - 231

Received: 25 Aug 2016
Accepted: 23 Nov 2016

Published online: 19 Feb 2017 *

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