Production Capable Additive Manufacturing of Polymers (ProAMP)

3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing (AM) has been heralded as a revolutionary technology which will impact on almost every aspect of manufacturing. It promises to be a technology which will change the manufacturing paradigm This is undoubtedly true, but before AM can be regarded as an established mass production technology it must metamorphose from a low volume, relatively inaccurate and highly expensive process to one which is capable fo competing with established manufacturing processes such as injection moulding and CNC machining. The purpose of this project is to enable AM to deliver on its promise of being an acceptable, stable, low cost manufacturing technology.

The project will do this by delivering the largest capacity polymer sintering 3d printing machine yet built. The components produced by the machine will be solidified using a unique, ultra high speed optical scanning system which will yield speeds twenty times faster than those presently available.

A highly stable temperature control environment will be developed which will enable the use of other polymers which can not presently be used in the polymer sintering process, including Polycarbonate, ABS PEEK and PEKK,

The project will develop a technique to automatically clean and finish the 3d printed parts, prior to packaging.

In order to ensure manufacturing accuracy, stability and reliability, each part will be automatically optically inspected prior to packing. The systems which will be used to do this uses algorithms which have only recently become available.

The measurements provided by the automatic inspection will then be used to recalibrate the sintering machine prior to its next manufacturing operation.

Following inspection, the parts will be automatically packed and combined with administrative information such as labels and delivery notes, in preparation to shipping.

The system will be capable of providing customers with manufacturing information at each stage of the manufacturing process, so that the 3D printed parts can be more readily combined into existing manufacturing planning and quality systems.

Upon successful conclusion, the project will demonstrate a methodology which, when applied to polymer sintering will yield an Additive Manufacturing processes capable of producing parts in a wide range of polymers, and to a cost and quality which is comparable with established processes such as injection moulding.