Discipline: Technology and Engineering
Subcategory: Civil/Mechanical/Manufacturing Engineering
Session: 2
Room: Marriott Balcony B
Marquese Pollard - Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University
Co-Author(s): Dr. Phong Tran, Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University; Dr. Tarik Dickens, Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University
Additive manufacturing has been deemed a disruptive technology as a result of the many advantages it has over traditional manufacturing techniques. Some of these advantages include design flexibility, custom material formulation, integrability , and mass customization to list a few. According to ASTM standards, there are a total of seven additive technologies. This work focuses on additive manufacturing technology referred to as material extrusion. Specifically, Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) technology is used for the entirety of this work. One important factor which limits many applications for material extrusion technology is the porous nature of the final printed component excluding any post-processing treatment. Especially for composite processing, the porosity or air permeability of printed components restrict the technology from being used as a closed molding composite tooling. Here we present a novel method to correlate design and processing parameters to final part performance relating to air permeability . It is hoped this method can be adopted into standard ASTM practice for future quality testing. We also investigate optical filaments and establish a method to test its optical transmissivity performance compared to well-known fiber optic cable. Both tests will ultimately be used as a means to push functionalized FDM technology and materials forward to become adopted into the intelligent composite fabrication realm. According to the data, processing parameters ultimately had the greatest effect on final component porosity. The results clearly show distinguished properties with various parameters. These results ultimately resulted the fabrication of composite tool, which is used to create a composite laminate. The properties of the composite structure manufactured with FDM processing was compared to other well-known fabrication techniques. This manufacturing method shows promise in the composite field for processing unique structures. The optical experiment shows promise for FDM being used for optical application potentially for cure monitoring composite materials. The porosity experiment establishes design and processing considerations when a hermetic environment is desired, while the optical experimental provides proof of the potential adoption of FDM materials into more functional applications. As a result of fiber optic cables being used as cure monitoring technology, it is hoped an additive manufacturing system can be produced. The system will allow custom closed molds to be fabricated with integrated cure monitoring technology built in the mold which can be used to fabrication high -quality composite structures with homogeneous characteristics throughout the structure by monitoring matrix curing state.
Funder Acknowledgement(s): National Science Foundation (#1735968) Centers of Research Excellence in Science and Technology
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Tarik Dickens, dickens@eng.famu.fsu.edu
Role: I completed the entirety of this research as my master's thesis work. My advisors and post-doctorate assisted me along the way. Their names are included as co-authors.