Master of Technology Management Plan II Graduate Projects

Date of Award

Summer 8-5-2016

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Technology Management-Engineering Technology

Department

Engineering Technologies

First Advisor

Dr. Todd Charles Wagoner

Second Advisor

Dr. Sudershan K. Jetley

Abstract

Rapid prototyping [RP] or 3D printing [3DP] have existed for some time now. One of the major deficiencies of 3DP is the accuracy of the printed three dimensional parts. Even beyond that is the lack of studies that have been designed to measure the 3DP components. Measuring, verifying and determining the accuracy of 3DP parts is the focus of this study. As the accuracy is measured and approaches those of CNC machined parts, it will drive the development of additional additive manufacturing [AM] machinery. In this project a component is created in a solid modeling package. A solid model of the part and an engineering drawing is developed along with an STL file, which will allow for the printing of the part on four 3D Printing machines. The four 3DP machines selected for this study include: Stratasys Dimension 768, Mojo Professional 3D Printer, da Vinci 1.0 3D Printer and Makerbot Replicator Desktop 3D Printer. The parts are printed using sparse and solid fill techniques on the differing 3DP machines. The accuracy of the printed parts as varied over the different fill and support characteristics and be compared to the original solid model’s corresponding engineering drawings. Descriptive statistical analysis is then carried out on the measured dimensions of the printed components and compared to the original designed solid model. We find the Stratasys BTS 768 to be the most stable 3D Printer of the four 3D printers we work with, in terms of print quality and stability. All the printers have one parameter each for which the maximum Percent Difference is the highest. However, it is the least in the case of STRATASYS (1.16%) followed by DaVINCI (3.38%), MOJO (4.8%) and REPLICATOR (7.4%).

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