Production readiness assessment of low cost, multi-material, polymeric 3D printed moulds

• Published in: Heliyon 2022-10, Vol.8 (10), p.e11136-e11136, Article e11136
• Main Authors: Ferretti, Patrich, Santi, Gian Maria, Leon-Cardenas, Christian, Fusari, Elena, Cristofori, Mattia, Liverani, Alfredo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Carbon fibre mould; Chemical smoothing; FDM; Multimaterial FDM; PLA; PVB; Vapor smoothing
• ISSN: 2405-8440; 2405-8440
• DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e11136

Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) technology allows to choose a large variety of materials and it is widely used by companies and individuals nowadays. The cost effectiveness of rapid prototyping is achievable via FDM, that makes this technology useful for research and innovation. The application of 3D printing to aid production is the most common approach. Moreover, the use of 3D printing in prototypes result in a waste of material since no reuse is considered. In the following manuscript, this technology is applied to mould fabrication by achieving a low surface roughness at a modest cost compared to conventional manufacturing methods. Moreover, the possibility to use a combination of thermoplastic materials is analysed by examination of the CAD model optimized for Additive Manufacturing (AM) from scratch and was verified using metrology tools. Several moulds were finally built and applied to the specific case study of carbon fibre laminated components. This manuscript aims to analyse the manufacturing process by comparing the mould surface geometry before and after the smoothing process. The achieved tolerance between the produced moulds is ±0.05 mm that ensures the repeatability of the process from an industrial point of view; whilst the deviation between CAD and mould is ±0.2 mm. To combine an accurate FDM process together with chemical smoothing proved to be a powerful strategy to produce high quality components that can be inserted in the production process by means of traditional manufacturing techniques. This will aid to reduce the cost of standard manufacturing for low production batches and prototypes of carbon fibre composites. •The FDM AM procedure must be properly set up for the best outcome.•The new generation FDM AM machinery gives the opportunity to explore new opportunities to reach manufacturing process efficiency to widen the target of this technology.•Surface quality by FDM creation can be outstandingly improved with chemical smoothing process.•Quality control by means of 3D scanning proved to be efficient with detection resolution in the order of 0.01 mm. FDM; Chemical smoothing; Vapor smoothing; PVB; PLA; Carbon fibre mould; Multimaterial FDM.