Optimisation of standard Aluminium alloy

and FDM technique for miniature castings

PRAGADEESH RAMU, SRI MUGUNDAN V,

Final year Students,
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
S.A. Engineering College, Chennai, India.
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About FDM technology

▫ Fused Deposition Modeling is an additive manufacturing

process that belongs to the material extrusion family

▫ In FDM, an object is built by selectively depositing melted

material in a pre-determined path layer-by-layer

▫ The materials used are thermoplastic polymers and come

in a filament form
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Polylactic Acid
properties

Melting point : 180 degree Celsius

Density : 1.210–1.430 g·cm−3

Filament diameter : 1.75mm

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Overhanging structures

Challenges in
FDM

Requires support
structures leading to :

• Increased printing
time
• Wastage of material
• Poor surface finish
Over hanging structure prevention through design

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• Operating temperatures
Common • Extrusion temperature
defects in FDM • Substrate temperature
• Print speed
• Extrusion rate
• Printer calibration
• Placement of the print platform and position nozzle
• Nozzle clogging
• Disrupted material flow
• Loss of adhesion to the print platform,
• Vibration
• Inaccurate adjustments of printer settings
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Bed Adhesion

Cause and effects

• The bed surface (PET

tape, glass, or other
types)

• The material you are

printing in (PLA, ABS,
Nylon)

• And the substrate

temperature
 DEFECTS IN FDM TECHNOLOGY

Elmer’s Adhesion glue Under extrusion Intermediate fusion shock

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 Disrupted material flow
Snapped Filament
Filament knot

Stripped Filament

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Incorrectly Levelled Bed

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 Nozzle block

Nozzle shear on Bed

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 Influence of NOZZLE geometry

TYPE D TYPE B

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• Intermediate fusion shock

Unexplored
areas • Rapid gas expansion in PLA filament

• Deposition on and without touching the

build plate

• Nozzle geometry

• Extrusion body assembly

 NOZZLE GEOMETRY

TYPE A TYPE B TYPE C TYPE D

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 EXTRUSION BODY ASSEMBLY
Extrusion body length
Modified body length

Gas expansion in track

leading to popping & gap
in print

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 CURA UI
Optimization by tweaking
control parameters

Pronterface UI

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% DENSITY VS STRENGTH % DENSITY VS SPEED

LAYERS VS
NUMBER OF LAYERS VS COST QUALITY
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Rapid Tooling

Application of
our work

Match Plate Mould

Printing Making

Casting
AC4B CHEMICAL COMPOSITION

Symbol
of type
Cu Si Mg Zn Fe Mn Ni Ti Pb Sn Cr Al
2.0 7.0 Rem
AC4B 0.50 1.0 1.0 0.50 0.35 0.20 0.20 0.10 0.20
to to ainde
max. max. max. max. max. max. max. max. max.
4.0 10.0 r

Symbol
Cu Si Mg Zn Fe Mn Mg Ti Pb Sn Cr Al
of type
Rem
0.2 7.5 0.45 0.1 0.2 0.1 0.20 0.20 0.10 0.20
AC4B 0.45 ainde
max max max max max max max. max. max. max.
r
Tensile Test Sample Specification Tensile Test Sample Location

All samples assumed to be cut to “Sub size Specimen” dimensions from the ASTM E8 Standard

Location 1 Location 2

SPECIMEN INTERFACE LONGITUDINAL FRONT FACE

RESULT COMPARISON
Filling temperature with uniform even gradient
Solidification Result
Porosity Result
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CONCLUSION

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 Thanks!
Curious to hear your questions

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Credits

We would like to thank the management and

organizers of Madras Institute of Technology
for granting us this opportunity