Design for reversed additive manufacturing low-melting-point alloys

AbstractAdditive manufacturing (AM) technologies have been widely used in construction, medical, military, aerospace, fashion, etc. As AM advances, increasing new AM-based manufacturing methods have been developed (e.g. CNC machining and AM hybrid manufacturing). Recently, a new manufacturing method ‘reversed additive manufacturing (RAM)’ was proposed by the authors. First, the designed objective part needs to be reversed using a bounding box, obtaining the reversed outside part. Then fabricate the reversed outside part using AM with dissolvable material (e.g. PLA). After that, fill the reversed outside part using aimed material (e.g. low-melting-point alloys) of the objective part. Lastly, soak the whole part into the dissolvent to dissolve the outside part, obtaining the final objective part. In this paper, design for RAM is proposed. Print orientation, print parameter settings, injection parameter settings, shrinkage, cost and post-processing are discussed. Experiments with several lattice structures are carried out and case studies are demonstrated. The findings of this paper can benefit the design process for RAM, improving the design efficiency for RAM.KEYWORDS: Additive manufacturing3D Printingreversed additive manufacturinginjectiondesign AcknowledgementsThis study is funded by Research Grants Council (C4074-22G), Innovation and Technology Commission (MHP/043/20, under PiH/278/22), Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (Project ID: 3110174), Provincial Natural Science Foundation of Anhui (2208085QA01) and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (WK0010000075).Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Additional informationFundingThis work was supported by Chinese University of Hong Kong [grant number Project ID: 3110174]; Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [grant number WK0010000075]; Innovation and Technology Commission [grant number MHP/043/20, under PiH/278/22]; Natural Science Foundation of Anhui Province [grant number 2208085QA01]; Research Grants Council, University Grants Committee [grant number C4074-22G].