Characterization of power demand and energy consumption for fused filament fabrication using CFR-PEEK

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to model power demand and energy consumption of fused filament fabrication (FFF) for carbon fiber-reinforced polyether-ether-ketone (CFR-PEEK) based on a material addition rate (MAR), which is affected by process parameter changes in an FFF machine. Moreover, a virtual additive manufacturing (AM) plant handling multiple FFF machines and part designs is simulated to compare the energy and production dynamics of operational strategies that treat part orders differently based on their inherent MAR. Design/methodology/approach A full-factorial design of experiments considering major FFF parameters (i.e., layer thickness and printing speed) is planned to fabricate CFR-PEEK samples for each process parameter combination. Then, the MAR of each process parameter combination is calculated to derive regression models for average power demand and total energy consumption. Furthermore, a discrete-event simulation model for a virtual AM system of aircraft parts is built to analyze changes in power demand and energy consumption along with order lead time and production volume under three operational strategies (i.e., higher MAR first-out, first-in-first-out, and lower MAR first-out). Findings The MAR of FFF for CFR-PEEK plays a key role in energy dynamics in which a decrease in energy consumption dominates over an increase in power demand as the MAR increases. Furthermore, preferentially processing parts with a higher MAR in the AM system is the most beneficial strategy in both energy consumption and productivity. Originality/value The findings from this study show that the energy performance of CFR-PEEK applications in FFF should be understood with the MAR of an AM system because the impact of AM complexity on energy performance can be operationally controlled by managing the MAR of part orders for the entire AM system.

Adaptive Mechanism for Designing a Personalized Cranial Implant and Its 3D Printing Using PEEK

“…An INTAMSYS (Intelligent Additive Manufacturing Systems) FUNMAT HT 3D printer (INTAMSYS Technology Co. Ltd, Shanghai, China) is used for the manufacturing of the personalized PEEK cranial implant. The printer uses a fused filament fabrication (FFF) technique, which has the advantage of consuming less energy, producing more, and delivering higher tensile strength when the printing parameters are set appropriately [ 66 , 67 ]. FFF is amongst the most widespread and straightforward AM procedures [ 68 ].…”

Investigation of an Optimal Material Addition Rate for Energy Consumption and Dimensional Accuracy in Fused Filament Fabrication of CFR-PEEK

“…For each sample type, a full-factorial experimental design was planned to fabricate experimental samples by varying layer thickness and printing speed levels. These two FFF process parameters were chosen due to their significant effects on energy consumption and dimensional accuracy for CFR-PEEK outputs [ 14 , 16 , 24 ]. All possible combinations of layer thickness at five levels and printing speed at six levels were randomly organized for the experiments of each sample type (see Table 1 ).…”

“…The MAR of each experimental sample was calculated by dividing the total deposited volume by the build time (= ) to represent the amount of deposited material per time. Then, the energy consumption model for FFF in Equation (2) [ 16 ] was used to fit the energy consumption data of fabricated samples through linear regression. where , is an intercept, and is a coefficient for the predictor.…”

“…Hassan et al [ 14 ] employed a regression model of electric power demand on the MAR of FFF for CFR-PEEK, and they simulated manufacturing scenarios with different FFF machine quantities to analyze a trade-off between energy costs and cycle time. Kim et al [ 16 ] derived the regression models of power demand and energy consumption on the MAR of FFF for CFR-PEEK to simulate the energy performance of an AM system that handles multiple FFF machines and aircraft part designs.…”

“…FFF using CFR-PEEK generally imposes high-level operational requirements (e.g., high processing time and expensive material costs) [ 24 ]. Given the operational expense of FFF for CFR-PEEK, a trade-off between energy consumption and part quality of FFF for CFR-PEEK becomes a critical issue; the energy consumption of FFF using CFR-PEEK is improved at a high MAR [ 16 ], whereas the dimensional accuracy of FFF outputs using CFR-PEEK deteriorates at a high printing speed [ 24 ] that leads to a high MAR. In this regard, understanding a proper process efficiency level for FFF using CFR-PEEK is necessary to have optimal AM operations that satisfy the overall best performance under a trade-off between energy requirements and part quality.…”