Abstract

Additive manufacturing (AM) processes possess excellent capabilities for manufacturing complex designs as single uniform parts with optimum material utilization. However, the processes are still not widely used in industry to make large parts. The main reason for this slow adoption is the low material deposition rate during printing. Increasing the material deposition rate by increasing the layer thickness or utilizing larger diameter nozzles results in deterioration of the surface quality of the part. This is known as the “staircase effect”; thus there is a trade-off between the print time and the surface finish of a part. A majority of the research efforts focused on minimizing this trade-off aim to minimize the print time by optimizing the layer thickness based on the evaluation of local geometry of the part. Another approach adopted in minimizing this trade-off is to utilize multiple nozzles concurrently for increasing the material deposition rate. The processes leveraging this approach use independent nozzles with relative motion between them and are seen to be more suitable for parts with a large footprint in the X-Y plane. This thesis further explores this direction of research by utilizing multiple nozzles, mounted on the same print-head, for concurrent printing to increase the deposition rate. The algorithm developed here requires a rotational axis. A 4-axis multi-nozzle toolpath generator, a G-code simulator and a proof-of-concept machine were therefore developed as part of this thesis.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Three-dimensional printing--Technological innovations; Three-dimensional printing--Data processing

Publication Date

4-19-2019

Document Type

Thesis

Student Type

Graduate

Degree Name

Industrial and Systems Engineering (MS)

Department, Program, or Center

Industrial and Systems Engineering (KGCOE)

Advisor

Denis Cormier

Advisor/Committee Member

Marcos Esterman

Campus

RIT – Main Campus

Plan Codes

ISEE-MS

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