Analysis of novel induction heating extruder for additive manufacturing using aluminum filament

Abstract

Induction Heating (IH) method is gaining traction in the field of Additive Manufacturing (AM) as it is a low cost, clean, safe, and precise energy source. Wire as a feedstock material is highly efficient as compared to the powder form in terms of material utilization and economic viability. Thus, the combination of IH and wire feedstock delivery to additive manufacture a part has been explored on an in-house developed novel AM setup. The processing of aluminum wire (Al-5356) in semi-solid form from the extruder, heated using IH method has been performed. The approach adopted in this paper is to perform an in situ infrared imaging to analyze the evolution of thermal field during the extruder heating and metal deposition process. An effective thermal cartography has been undertaken to acquire temperature history of filament, extruder, and deposition process. The temperature profile plot is utilized to understand the temperature distribution and average temperature in the heating, extrusion, and layering process during layer fabrication. The presented work facilitates a priori anticipation to utilize IH as a potential energy source for the metal AM systems.

Development of a new method utilizing semi-solid aluminum wires for extrusion based additive manufacturing

“…Here, low liquid phase contents result into increased extrusion forces and possible clogging of the nozzle, whereas high liquid phase contents enhance the formation of droplets at the nozzle opening. The formation or presence of droplets during extrusion has been referred to as an undesirable factor by several authors [8,12,13] resulting in a reduced accuracy of the manufactured parts. Due to the strong correlation between the processing temperature or rather the liquid phase content associated therewith and the resulting material´s flow behavior, selection of a suitable aluminum alloy is a key issue.…”

“…However, due to high friction as well as an inappropriate temperature distribution inside the print head, no satisfying results were obtained. Sharma et al [13] applied a modified print head design utilizing induction heating to temper an iron core and through conductive heat transport thereby the actual aluminum wire that is passed internally. This approach resulted in a steady state extrusion of a four-layer rectangular test piece made of Al5356 wire.…”

Extrusion strategies in fused deposition additive manufacturing: A review

“…(2021) 51,52 Extrusion of metal filament Using an aluminum filament on a customized FFF 3D printer. Developing the induction heating-assisted extrusion head to fabricate aluminum parts using the FFF 3D printing mechanism.…”

“…Their methodology involves green part printing using pellets form feed stock, followed by de-binding of polymers and sintering to obtain metallic parts. 53–23 G. K. Sharma et al 51,52 used aluminum wire form feedstock in an extrusion-based AM system to fabricate the metallic part. The objective of this study is to critically review both filaments, and pellets-based FDAM process and introduces the possibility of a new extrusion-based AM method that can process filament, as well as pellets form feedstock.…”

Numerical and experimental analysis of heat transfer in inductive conduction based wire metal deposition process

“…[22][23][24] Infrared (IR) imaging in the thermal process of material deposition were performed to elucidate the thermal evolution in AM processes. [25][26][27] Induction heating has been used as an additional heat source in other methods of AM. 28 So far, the existing methods emphasised the heat transfer modeling for induction heating in various applications.…”