We hereby declare that the work presented in this project is the result of the research and research work carried out by us under the supervision of Md. The project has been carried out in part to fulfill the requirement for the Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree in Mechanical Engineering of the year 2022 and has been approved for style and content. Mainol Hasan Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sonargaon University (SU), for his guidance and valuable advice in the conduct and completion of the study, without which it would have been impossible to carry out the work.
Mostofa Hossain, Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, (SU) for granting permission to use the Department's laboratory facilities. STL file format most common in almost all RP machines today. Today, rapid prototyping technologies are used in almost all industries and are fast moving away from the conventional methods of manufacturing any product.
These days we can print almost any shape object without any problem and the printing is not limited to the material as they can print any material available in any shape eg. solid, liquid and powder. Some of the recent developments in this field show that it is being used in all fields such as medical field to print biomaterials, automotive field to print all auto parts, aerospace industry, space industry, food industry, construction industry, manufacturing industry, etc. These costs are the biggest obstacle for the machine's use in small and medium-sized industries, and also these costs are largely linked to the accuracy and reliability of the machine.
Since machine accuracy is a very critical parameter, machine accuracy is also considered when developing a printer.
CHAPTER – 2
BACKGROUND
CHAPTER -3
- NEMA 17 STEPPER MOTOR
- ARDUINO MEGA 2560
- RAMPS 1.4 SHIELD
- STEPPER MOTOR DRIVERS WITH HEAT SINK
- EXTRUDER FULL SET WITH FAN
- SMOOTH ROD
- TRAPEZOIDAL LEAD SCREW
- FLEXIBLE COUPLING COUPLER
- LINEAR BALL BEARING
- TIMING BELT
- TEETH PULLEY
- PCB HEAT BED
- RADIAL BALL BEARING
- END STOP SWITCH
- ALUMINUM CHANNEL
- GLASS
- PLYWOOD
- Zip tie
- DC POWER SUPPLY 12 Volt 20 amp
- FILAMENT 1.75 mm
- WORKING PRINCIPLE OF 3D PRINTER
- FINAL PRODUCTS
The modular design includes plug-in stepper drivers and extruder control electronics on an Arduino MEGA shield for easy servicing, parts replacement. Additionally, a number of Arduino expansion boards can be added to the system if the main RAMPS board is on top of the stack. An extruder is used to control the movement of the filament, which is basically a feed system that has a cold upper part that feeds the filament with the help of a motor and a tool, and a hot part that has a heating device to heat and melt the filament. The hot part consists of a brass bolt with a drilled hole to move the filament.
The size of the drilled hole varies with the sizes of filament available and here we used 3mm wide filament. To move the printer bed and the printer head, we use different rods that provide the required degree of freedom. To control the movement of the rods, we use motors, pulleys and belt arrangement.
Here, the Y-axis provides one degree of freedom by moving the frame back and forth using a stepper motor and pulley arrangement. This axis is an integral part of the Y-axis construction and it provides the movement to the extruder axis ie. Z-axis movement is controlled using 2 stepper motors for better accuracy.
A trapezoidal threaded rod is a metal rod with a continuous trapezoidal thread along the entire length of the rod. The PCB heatbed has two sides, one with copper traces (bottom side) and one without (top side). On older versions of the heatbed PCB, only the non-trace side was screen printed.
Previously, printing on top was considered safer, as the copper traces could be damaged if the print head collided with the heat bed surface (for example, if the Z-min end stop malfunctioned). Please note that the LED, resistor and wire connections can also accidentally collide with the print head. We used a zip tie to secure the motor with THA plywood as the screw.
The ATX-12V system is used to power the various parts of the machine. We then ran the configuration on the Marlin using a laptop connected to Arduino so that the configuration is automatically installed in the Arduino. The printer can print intricate shapes with ease and the software develops the support material itself without any human intervention, depending on the part configuration.
These specimens shown below are further used to study the mechanical and physical properties of the filament used, but the results are not discussed here.
CHAPTER-4
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
- COMPARISON OF OUR 3D PRINTER WITH CONVENTIONAL 3D PRINTER IN MARKET
- ADVANTAGE OF LOW COST 3D PRINTER
- LIMITATIONS OF LOW COST 3D PRINTER
- CONCLUSION
- REFERENVES
Constant prototyping and increased productivity - enables rapid production with a large number of prototypes or a small version of the real object in less time than using conventional methods. This helps designers improve their prototypes for any design flaws that may affect the quality of the product. Affordability - The initial cost of setting up a 3D printing facility is definitely high; however, it is much cheaper compared to labor cost and manufacturing cost while using the conventional way.
In addition, the fact that the cost of producing or manufacturing products using 3d printing technology is equal for small and mass production. This breakthrough will not only address the shortage of organ donors, but also organ rejection, as the organs that are built will consist of the patient's unique characters and DNA. Limited size - The size of objects created with 3d printers is currently limited, however in the near future;.
Limited Resources - Traditional manufacturing of products involves a huge range of resources that can be used. Currently, 3D printers can process up to about 100 different raw materials, and creating products that use more raw materials is still in development. It will become more common and tracing the source of the counterfeit items will be virtually impossible.
Production of dangerous items - With 3D printers, plastic knives, guns and any other dangerous objects can be created. The 3D printer is a new technology that has a lot of potential and its proper analysis based on its impact on society, environment, industries, etc. It has both advantages and limitations and all of them should be kept in mind when choosing and working with 3D printers.
Recent developments in technologies such as more accurate lead screws, more precise motors, good sensor system, more reliable feedback loop, etc. The further development of technologies will remove all obstacles of this technique and soon the day will come when only 3D printers will be used to manufacture all parts, components, objects. So we can say that soon 3D printers will lead the market and completely eliminate conventional manufacturing systems and have the potential to create the next industrial revolution where only 3D printers will dominate each and every field.
