Document Type

Article

Publication Date

4-1-2019

Abstract

Additive manufacturing, also known as 3D printing, is becoming a go-to production method for short production runs and rapid prototyping on a commercial scale. The growth of additive manufacturing is due to many fac­tors including development of concept modeling, product designing, prototyping, and customized parts. Pittsburg State University’s College of Technology strives to stay at the cutting edge of processing materials for additive manufacturing. The capability of making our own 3D-printer filament would allow students to work with new and different materials and would allow students to learn at the forefront of 3D printing technology. The Wayne Yellowjacket Extruder and Brabender Puller and Winder was used to produce 1.75 mm 3D-printing filament. The Yellowjacket required a lid on the hopper that was fabricated via thermoforming. The Brabender puller and winder was necessary for controlling the filament speed entering the winder and isolating the tension created by the spool from the extruder. When extruding plastic, the thickness and cross-sectional profile are dependent on the rate of cooling; therefore, a cooling trough was designed and fabricated. Polylactic acid (PLA) or acrylonitrile butadiene styrene copolymer (ABS) was used to extrude filament from this line. Successful extrusion of 3D print­ing filament will allow students to produce their own filament as needed for additive manufacturing using the existing Stratysys FDM 1600 and the student-built 3D printer.

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