Study on Efficient Fused Deposition Modelling of Thermoplastic Polyurethane Inflatable Wall Features for Airtightness

• The thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) material is an elastomer that canbe used for inflatable products. Fused deposition modelling (FDM) is a widelyused additive manufacturing process for TPU material due to the capability ofgenerating complex structures with low cost. However, TPU is soft and thusdifficult to be extruded as continuously and uniformly as hard materials such aspolylactide by FDM. Inappropriate extruder structure and speed settings can leadto filament buckling problem, resulting in poor material filling quality, longprinting time and low printing success rate. This paper aims at improving the FDMprinting efficiency of TPU inflatable products by adding lateral support to thefilament and finding out the appropriate speed ranges for different wall featuresand thicknesses. Firstly, a filament guide sheet is designed as being inserted intothe gap between the drive gears and the bottom frame of the gear chamber in orderto prevent the soft TPU filament from buckling. Secondly, inflatable product wallfeatures are classified into floors, roofs and sidewalls and experiment for findingthe relationship between printing speed and airtightness is carried out. In order toverify the proposed solution, wall features are printed and the material fillingsobtained under different printing speeds are compared by measuring theairtightness of the wall features. Results show that the proposed filament guidesheet mitigates filament buckling, and the speed range that meets the airtightnessrequirement can be found for various wall features and thicknesses. In summary,the sealing of the filament feeding channel between the drive gears and the nozzle,as well as the speed optimisation according to product features, are essential forthe efficient printing of TPU inflatable products.

Ämnesord

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Maskinteknik -- Produktionsteknik, arbetsvetenskap och ergonomi (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Mechanical Engineering -- Production Engineering, Human Work Science and Ergonomics (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Thermoplastic polyurethane

3D printing

fused deposition modelling

filament extrusion

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