Design for 3D Printed Tools: Mechanical Material Properties for Direct Polymer Additive Tooling.

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Manufacturing Engineering
• Polymer Science

Background:

• Traditional manufacturing struggles with mass customization demands.
• Additive manufacturing (AM) offers rapid tooling potential for metal forming.
• A comprehensive characterization of AM polymers is needed for sophisticated rapid tooling design.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the compressive and flexural mechanical properties of additively manufactured polymers.
• To investigate the influence of polymer type and layer height on material properties.
• To provide data for the sophisticated layout and application of direct polymer additive tooling.

Main Methods:

• Additive manufacturing of polymer specimens using fused filament fabrication (FFF).
• Experimental design to assess flexural and compressive strength, modulus, density, hardness, and surface roughness.
• Application of findings to a case study involving a cup drawing operation.

Main Results:

• Significant influences of polymer type and layer height on mechanical properties (strength, modulus), density, hardness, and surface roughness were identified.
• Variations in material and processing parameters lead to a range of achievable manufacturing quality.
• The strongest and weakest material/parameter combinations were identified for tooling applications.

Conclusions:

• The study provides essential mechanical property data for AM polymers used in rapid tooling.
• Findings guide the selection of materials and process parameters for optimized direct polymer tooling.
• The case study demonstrates the practical application and achievable quality of 3D printed polymer tooling.