Investigation of process parameters in direct material deposition based open-source additive manufacturing systems

In this study, the Additive Manufacturing methods are investigated. They are considered to be revolutionary for the manufacturing industry. In this context, amongst many other research topics, it is observed that Fused Filament Fabrication and Metal Droplet Jetting systems are considered to be popular ones. The common feature of these methods is that they are based on the direct material deposition technique, which provides significant advantages in terms of manufacturing parts with complex geometry. However, both of the methods are fairly new and there are still some technical issues that are currently a research topic. To achieve the objectives of the presented study, firstly, a Fused Filament Fabrication device based on open-source concept is developed. The process parameters that affects the part strength are determined and optimized using the open-source device. During the optimizations, along with others, the issue of material consumption is also considered. The objective of this study is to achive controlled process parameters and steps to increase the part strength using the same amount of material. In the second stage; Owing to the open-source concept system developed, the same device is extensively modified to make it suitable for the Metal Droplet Jetting system related research. The production process is performed by controlled deposition of metal droplets. In order to give droplet form to the molten metal, a unique Metal Droplet Jetting mechanism including a mechanical actuation system is designed and manufactured. To achieve a deposition model with the desired morphology, the droplet ejection and deposition stages are first subdivided into groups, then each is examined in details. In this way, the droplets are not only produced homogeneously, but the need for pneumatic gas support, which makes it difficult to control and increases the processing cost, is eliminated. As a result of experimental studies supported by theoretical calculations, a low-cost and practical metal material deposition method that can be used effectively, especially in the electronics industry, is presented.