Advancing fused deposition modelling

本研究的最终目标是开发一种制造策略，允许在医院内以具有成本效益的方式设计和生产用于肌肉骨骼疾病的患者特定塑料植入物。传统制造带来了太多的设计限制，并且为此目的不具有成本效益，因此我们的研究重点是3D打印。存在几种3D打印技术，但由于其简单性，材料挤出3D打印是一种有吸引力的技术。在此，塑料长丝被供应到挤出喷嘴，该挤出喷嘴被加热到半液态。然后，半熔融塑料通过喷嘴挤出并分层放置。喷嘴的位置由数控机构控制，该机构遵循所需零件的形状。这种制造技术的简单性使其非常容易获得，并允许在办公室环境中打印各种塑料。然而，这种3D打印技术已经被开发用于创建原型而不是功能部件，因此具有一些限制。因此，我们的短期目标是研究和增强这种基于塑料挤出的3D打印技术，以确保可以制造出坚固可靠的植入物和其他塑料部件。除了广泛的材料测试外，我们还将生成数值模型，用于预测打印植入物和部件的长期性能和强度，以确保安全性和可靠性。通过创新方法，我们将改进打印工艺并解决其一些局限性，这将进一步提高打印植入物和部件的可靠性和强度。我们还将在打印过程中使用连续碳纤维，从而生产出非常坚硬和坚固的零件，可用于许多其他行业，包括航空航天。

The over goal of this research is to develop a manufacturing strategy that allows to cost-effectively design and produce patient specific plastic implants for musculoskeletal conditions within a hospital. Conventional manufacturing poses too many design restrictions and would not be cost-effective for this purpose and therefore our research focuses on 3D printing. Several 3D printing technologies exist but due to its simplicity material extrusion 3D printing is an attractive technology. Here, a plastic filament is supplied to an extrusion nozzle which is heated to a semi-liquid state. The semi-molten plastic is then extruded through the nozzle and laid down in layers. The position of the nozzle is controlled with a numerically controlled mechanism that follows the shape of the desired part. The simplicity of this manufacturing technology makes it very accessible and allows to print a wide variety of plastics in an office setting. However, this 3D printing technology has been developed to create prototypes and not functional parts and therefore has several limitations. Therefore, our short term goal is to investigate and enhance this plastic extrusion based 3D printing technology to ensure that strong and reliable implants and other plastic parts can be manufactured. In addition to extensive material testing, we will generate numerical models, which allow to predict the long term performance and strength of the printed implants and parts to ensure safety and reliability. With an innovative approach we will enhance the printing process and address some of its limitations, which will further increase reliability and strength of the printed implants and parts. We will also include continuous carbon fiber into the printing process resulting in very stiff and strong parts that can be used in many other industries, including aerospace.