Track: Undergraduate Student Paper Competition

Abstract

Conventional manufacturing processes depend on the principle of removal of materials, which involves non-linear materials processing and have waste material left after the manufacturing is completed. Significant developments have been in this field over the last fifty years. However, there was always a desire to manufacture products in such a way that the wastage reduces to zero. The concept of additive manufacturing, in the form of 3D printing, made a breakthrough in this direction and soon has attracted the attention of researchers, engineers, and entrepreneurs all over the world. 3D printing has opened new opportunities in terms of manufacturing possibilities and shifted the manufacturing paradigms. This capstone design project aimed to in-house design, fabricate and test a 3D printer. A design was developed consisting of sets of screws, BLDC motors, one CNC controller, etc. and controlled using Mach3 software. Our designed 3D printer uses BLDC motors due to significantly higher levels of accuracy and efficiency as compared to the current practice of using stepper motor. Moreover, we used ball screws instead of the usual lead screws as they provide smoother, quieter, and efficient motion. These three components make this design a novel one that has high potential to compete with the other available 3D printers. Finally, the 3D printer is tested, and the printed objects are highlighted to see if this creative combination can be used to advance this manufacturing process.