Development of novel additive manufacturing technology: an investigation of a selective composite formation process

Purpose - The purpose of this study is to present a novel additive manufacturing (AM) technology which is based on selective formation of cellulose-acrylate composite. Besides proposing a process that combines the benefits of fibres and photopolymers, this paper reports the development of material, characterisation of a straight line composite formation, adherence between layers and functional feasibility of the proposed concept. Design/methodology/approach - For the preliminary evaluation of the proposed process, a composite material based on cellulose-photopolymer was developed, while a multi-objective optimisation study indicated the formulation which results in the maximum values of layer adherence, tensile strength of composite and the effect of the water on the mechanical strength of material. For the characterisation of the process, three main subjects were analysed: the characterisation of straight line composite formation, the effect of composite formation process on previous layers and the functional feasibility of technology. Findings - In the material development, the tensile strength of dry composite was identified between 20 and 30 MPa, while the tensile strength of wet composite was between 5 and 12 MPa. It is important to note that the dry and wet cellulose presented tensile strength, respectively, equal to 15 and 1 MPa, indicating the possibility of residual material removal only with the use of water or other soft solvent. The values of adherence between layers (peeling test) were found to be between 0.12 and 0.15 kgf, and the photopolymer formulation which resulted in the maximum adherence has monomer/oligomer ratio equal to 1.5 and 2 per cent wt of photoinitiator percentual. As result of the optimisation study, the material formulation was compounded by monomer - 10 ml, oligomer - 4.5 ml and photoinitiator - 2 per cent, being found suitable to characterise and evaluate the proposed process. The study of composite formation along a straight line showed values of line width between 1,400 and 3,500 mu m in accordance with light power, laser velocity and laser beam diameter. On the other hand, the number of previous layers affected by the composite formation varied from 0 to 4, indicating a potential process limit. In the functional feasibility study, a feasible process window which resulted in the maximum dimensional deviation equal to 0.5 mm was identified. In addition, the mean mechanical tensile strength was found to be around 30 MPa for longitudinal laser trajectory (90 degrees) and 15 MPa for transversal laser trajectory (0 degrees), highlighting the anisotropic behaviour of final parts according to the manufacturing strategy. Originality/value - This paper proposed a novel AM technology and also described studies related to the characterisation of this concept. This work might also be useful to the development of other AM processes and applications.