Authors:
Saeed Khademzadeh (Chalmers University of technology, Sweden),
Yijun Zhou (Uppsala University, Sweden)
Abstract:
Additive Manufacturing of non-assembly metallic mechanisms is highly desirable because of their potentially higher performance and low costs due to enhanced structural features and the reduced need for labour-intensive procedures. However, fabrication of such mechanisms using metal AM techniques faces many challenges. For instance, down-skin inclined surfaces suffer from an insufficient quality due to the staircase effect and partially melted attached powder particles that may deteriorate the function of the mechanism since residuary stuck material can block the clearance space. In this work, a novel scanning strategy was employed for the fabrication of non-assembly functional micromechanisms. A threshold angle was defined for activation of a new set of process parameters for down-skin surfaces. Non-assembly ball joints were additively manufactured using laser powder bed fusion technology. The effects of threshold angle, overlap between in-skin and down-skin surfaces, and input energy on the functionality of non-assembly joints was investigated using micro-computed tomography
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.59499/WP225371467