Design and Development of a 5-Degree of Freedom 3D Printer

Abstract

This thesis describes designing and developing a 3D printer that is capable of free form printing with the approach of implementing additional degrees of freedom (2 rotational axes) to the system. The purpose of creating such system is to endeavour enhancement of 3D printing technology in terms of production cost and product quality. In a long term futuristic view, it is designed to achieve printing of complex self-supported and free-form structured microelectronic devices as sensors and actuators. The printer is also capable of printing mesoscale objects for experimental purposes. The designed 3D printer utilises ultraviolet light to solidify liquid photopolymer by curing mechanism. The printer takes the form of integrating several subsystems governed by the main control system. The subsystems include motion control, curing system and extrusion system. Suitable hardware and software systems are developed for each system to build a fully functioning 3D printer. UV lasers are used to cure the extruded photopolymer. Safety and guideline for using lasers have been thoroughly considered and safety measure checks have been implemented in the printer. To evaluate the functionality of the developed 3D printer, several experiments are conducted under different print settings. Firstly, laser power has been changed to observe its effect towards the quality of cured materials. Thin wall experiments are conducted to quantify the thinnest wall it can print. Solid objects are also printed to study the infill print configuration. Complex objects are printed using both traditional slicing methodology and those with the use of the additional rotational axes. They are compared to prove any enhancement to the product quality. Finally, self-supported and free-form printing has been conducted by utilising the rotational axes without building supports. From these experiments, the printer is capable of printing using both the slicing algorithm and free-form print methods. It also showed improved product quality when compared to the other printers with similar printing technique.