PSU MNE 1: Design and Development of a Closed Loop

Metal AM System
A. Vivar, P. Burke, D. Pfeiffer-Kelly, J. Gritt, K. Vashishth
Sponsored by Dr. Guha Manogharan,
Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering
Instructor: Dr. Asok Ray

OBJECTIVE METHODOLOGY RESULTS

To design and fabricate a low-cost Research/practice TIG Procure welding

closed loop metal additive welding operation and
equipment
manufacturing (AM) system using
tungsten inert gas (TIG)welding. The
printer will be fabricated to produce 3D Install equipment and
design + fabricate a
printed components made of titanium. mounting bracket (TIG
torch to motion stage)
equipment and
consumable (Praxair) 5 2 3
Install motion stage
software and generate 6
STL slicing software
g-code

BACKGROUND 1
4
Test all components
Additive manufacturing is a growing and test functionality
field with the potential to generate
significant cost savings in the
Figure 1. Design process for the fabrication of Figure 6. Full assembly of metal AM system
production of specialty metals like including wire feeder and motion stage
a 3D printer using TIG welding
titanium. However, current metal 3D
1) Welder 4) Motion Stage
printers cost between $350,000 -
2) Wire Feeder 5) Safety Curtains
$1M (not including operation costs)
3) Mounting 6) Printing Table
There is an important need for low- Bracket and Bed
cost metal 3D printers that most
Small and Medium Enterprises
(SMEs) can readily access for
research and technology
development via metal AM

MOTIVATION
Design and Fabricate a low cost metal
3D printer capable of printing thin wall
titanium parts
Integration modules for the use of
thermocouples and infrared sensors for
process monitoring help realize the
goal of a metal 3D printer under $15k
MATERIALS
For the fabrication of this system, the
team sourced and/or manufactured:
CK Worldwide WF 5 Wire Feeder
Miller Dynasty 210 DX TIG Welder & Figure 3. CAD Model of Figure 4. STL files of CAD
Coolmate 1.3
CK Worldwide Cold Wire Machine Torch
Aerotech 500 Linear NC Motion Stage
Titanium Wire 0.023-0.045
Mounting Bracket for Torch to Motion
Stage
Digital Potentiometer
Figure 7. Image of machine torch and wire
feeder
Figure 2. CAD Model Design of Motion Stage and FUTURE DEVELOPMENT
TIG Torch Assembly
Using CAD files and slicing software, G- In-Process Monitoring and Control:
Wire pulsing and current control
Code required to fabricate metal AM parts
(using digital potentiometer) should
can be uploaded to the motion stage
be fully automated
software
Include a closed-loop process
monitoring and control system
including infrared sensors and
thermocouples
Analysis of resulting microstructure,
mechanical properties and part
quality
L shaped object model in Slic3r to G-Code
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Penn State Applied Research
Laboratory
Penn State Learning Factory
Figure 5. TIG welding