Process Development for Rapid Manufacturing Using

Rapid Prototyping - A Technology Transfer Approach

Ismail Akbani@, Ahasan sheikh
CAD-CAM Centre,
Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur (India)

Abstract:
Use of Rapid Prototyping (RP) for Rapid Manufacturing (RM) is one of the important areas of
research today. RP and its various techniques has fast become an indispensable part of
modern manufacturing. Fused deposition modeling (FDM) process of rapid prototyping is
very easy to use and maintain as it is non laser based technique. Feasibility of
manufacturing the customized/ tailor made part using the said technique is the main focus of
the paper.
The paper highlights the research work being carried out at VNIT to address the issue of
manufacturing cost effective, defect free customized part.

Keywords: CAD-CAM,Rapid Manufacturing, FDM, Rapid Casting, Rapid Prototyping.

@:-corresponding author: alwaysismail@yahoo.co.in

Introduction:
The techniques based on layer-by-layer manufacturing i.e., rapid Prototyping are extending
their fields of application, from the building of aesthetic and functional prototypes to the
production of tools and moulds. In particular, additive construction applied to the production
of dies and electrodes, directly from digital data, is defined as rapid tooling (RT).
Traditionally, in order to produce cast prototypes a model and eventual cores have to be
created, involving time and costs that hardly match the rules of the competitive market
(figure 1). For this reason, functional tests are typically performed on prototypes obtained by
metal cutting (Rooks, 2002), which are not effective in outlining issues related to the
manufacturing process. In this field, innovative solutions are now available based on 3D
printing process, which can extend RC possibilities to the lower costs with respect to
previous technologies such as selective laser sintering of sand (Gatto and Iuliano, 2001). One
such technological solution consists in investment casting with the help of ABS-plastic
patterns produced on Fused Deposition Modelling technique of Rapid Prototyping.

Traditional Method Of Investment Casting vs Rapid casting (RC) method:

Fig. 1 Traditional method of investment casting

Fig. 2 Rapid casting (RC) method

Experimentation:
The experimentation is conducted with following objectives:
To verify the ABS-plastic material as an invest for investment casting process.
Verifying the feasibility of the investment casting process with FDM make patterns in
the case of block moulding.
Evaluate at what temp RP Part completely burnsout (vaporised).
Evaluating eventual critical parameters in the investment casting process.

Predicting the required parameters like temperature, time, and wall thickness for
getting the cavity inside the mould.

Methods & Material use

The experimental procedure started with the CAD modelling of the specimen (Figure 3),
having 4 cm diameter and 2 cm length making total volume of 25.12 cc. In the subsequent
stages, the length of the specimen has been increased by 1cm respectively.

Figure 3. Specimen used for the experimentation (diameter is 4 cm and the

length is 2 cm varied by 1 cm in subsequent stages up to 10 cm)
First of all the feasibility of ABS-plastic as invest in the investment casting process is checked
out with the help of a small experiment.
The volume of the mould material was varied depending on the volume of the ABS part
and keeping wall thickness constant. The gating and feeder system of wax are attached to
the specimen as shown in figure. The mould block then allowed to become solid by
currying it for 12 hours . Then it was kept in muffle furnace to evaporate the ABS plastic
and to get the cavity inside it. Then the mould was broken down after every stage to see
whether the cavity is ready for pouring or not .Then it is found clear cavity for every stage
as shown in figure 11 for last sample volume. The time and temperature for complete
evaporation of the part is observed as shown in the observation tables 1 and 2.

Measurements and Results:

To study the effect of various parameters like temperature, time, volume of ABS-plastic and
that of mould material (i.e., Zirconium sand), one parameter is varied at a time keeping other
parameters constant as shown in table 2 and the results are noted along with the remarks.
We predict and visualize during the experiment:

If ABS-plastic part is kept in the muffle furnace for 10 minutes openly by varying the
temperature up to 490 0C in stages then ABS-plastic is vaporized.

If increase the more temp then Block become more brittle and Crack occurs in mold.

If keep less temp then residue/half burn/or start to melt of RP part.

If block keep vertically basin in bottom position then choked occurs because of
gravity.

If shell thickness reduces then chance of crack occurs in mold means mold will not
wear/sustain the pouring of molten metal.

As the present research work is still under progress, all details of results cannot be disclosed
at this stage. Hence a glimpse is presented in the following tables.
Table 1
Volume of RP
(cc)

3.72
3.72
3.72

Shell thickness
Time set(minute)

15
15
15

Temp set (0 C)

480
520
530

Result
(Verify)

1.5
1.5
1.5

Unburned
Half burn intact
Completely burn
& Cracked

Table 2
Volume of RP
(cc)

Shell thickness
Time set(minute)

Temp set (0 C)

Result
(Verify)

25.12
25.12
25.12

15
20
40

520
520
520

1.5
1.5
1.5

100.53

40

520

1.5

125.67

40

520

1.5

Unburned
Half burn intact
Completely burn
Intact
Completely burn
Intact
Completely burn
Intact
4

Conclusions
The feasibility of investment casting starting from FDM manufactured ABS-plastic patterns
was proven in the case of wall thickness of 1.5 cm, excluding problems of very small residues
(Carbon deposited) after the pattern burning out. The technique provided satisfactory results
for block moulding. Compared to traditional investment casting process, this technique
ensures a much lesser time to get the product and higher geometrical freedom.
The proposed solution of ABS-plastic as invest in block type investment casting process is
proved to be effective for the production of cast technological prototypes, in very short times,
without complex tooling.

References

Ingole D. S., Kuthe A. M. (2009), Rapid prototyping- a technology transfer approach for
development of rapid tooling, Rapid Prototyping Journal, Vol.15 No. 4, pp.280-290.

C. W. Lee, C. K. Chua, C. M. Cheah, L. H. Tan, C. Feng (2004);Rapid investment casting:

direct and indirect approaches via fused deposition modeling; International Journal Adv
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Elena Bassoli, Andrea Garro, Luca Iuliano, 3D printing technique applied to rapid casting,
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No. 1, pp. 40-5.