Basic Research for Additive Manufacturing of Rubber

Abstract

The dissemination and use of additive processes are growing rapidly. Nevertheless, for the material class of elastomers made of vulcanizable rubber, there is still no technical solution for producing them using 3D printing. Therefore, this paper deals with the basic investigations to develop an approach for rubber printing. For this purpose, a fused deposition modeling (FDM) 3D printer is modified with a screw extruder. Tests are carried out to identify the optimal printing parameters. Afterwards, test prints are performed for the deposition of rubber strands on top of each other and for the fabrication of simple two-dimensional geometries. The material behavior during printing, the printing quality as well as occurrences of deviations in the geometries are evaluated. The results show that the realization of 3D rubber printing is possible. However, there is still a need for research to stabilize the layers during the printing process. Additionally, further studies are necessary to determine the optimum parameters for traverse speed and material discharge, especially on contours.

Media for Dimensional Stabilization of Rubber Compounds during Additive Manufacturing and Vulcanization

“…Therefore, an additively manufactured sample is used, which significantly deforms the shape during the vulcanization. The sample is produced with an FDM printer (Makergear ID3, Beachwood, OH, USA), where the conventional extruder has been replaced with a screw extruder, see also [ 17 ]. The setup is shown in Figure 3 a.…”

“…The reason for that is the rheological material behavior of vulcanizable rubbers [ 16 ]. Actually, rubber material can be discharged from a nozzle for layer-by-layer build-up, e.g., via extrusion-based 3D printing [ 17 , 18 ]. However, built-up forms may collapse by their own weight at a critical layer height.…”

Pandemic-Driven Development of a Medical-Grade, Economic and Decentralized Applicable Polyolefin Filament for Additive Fused Filament Fabrication

“…This includes the specification of the extruder used for the production of the filament as well as the desktop 3D printer for the printing process. Moreover, printing parameters such as layer height, nozzle temperature, and the temperature of the printing bed need to be described and constantly monitored during the printing process, since they have a considerable impact on the physical characteristics of the final device [ 46 ]. In addition, all components that come into contact with the medical device or the material used to print it, such as the filament feeder, the nozzle, and the build plate, are also subject to strict regulations.…”

Additive Technologies in the Production of Vehicle Rubber with Sensory Properties

“…This is caused by the rheological material behavior of vulcanizable rubber as well as the following vulcanization process. This leads to specific challenges for applications related to additive manufacturing processes [2]. In particular, the viscosity of rubber compounds leads to the risk that components built up in layers will deform unintentionally above a certain layer height or collapse completely under their own weight.…”

“…As described above, the biggest challenge for the additive manufacturing of vulcanizable rubbers is the maintenance of the shape during printing and vulcanization. Nevertheless, flat twodimensional geometries can already be produced without support material [2]. The basis of the technological equipment for the production of composite rubber compounds is the FDM printer (see Figure 2).…”