Fusions between Successive Deposition Droplets Impinging on a Moving Substrate Surface

Abstract

Abstract. Successive deposition of uniform metal droplet is a new kind of 3D printing and rapid prototyping (RP) technology. Broad interests have been aroused in the deposition of metal droplets due to its potential application in microstructures fabrication. In this paper, the 3D models based on a volume of fluid (VOF) method were developed to investigate the successive deposition of molten metal droplets on a horizontally moving aluminum substrate surface and manufactured the typical thin-walled parts using the process of metal droplet deposition. The impinging, spreading and fusion processes of droplets were investigated under uniform substrate velocities. The simulated final morphology of droplets agreed well with experiments carried out under the same conditions. It was found that the molten metal droplets solidified in a layer by layer from the outer to the inner due to the high heat conductivity. A series of arc-shaped ridges appeared on the surface of solidified droplets, which resulted from the integrated effects from solidification and fusion consisting of alternately spreading and fusion of droplets. The works should be helpful for the process optimization and non-destructive detection of drop-based rapid prototyping techniques.