Process simulation for plastic 3D printer

Abstract

Plastic 3D printer is the new technology which is able to create more free shape and a mold is not needed. There are no such characteristics in conventional methods, so plastic 3D printer is attracting from various viewpoints. Then, it will be progress to Rapid Manufacturing (RM) from Rapid prototyping (RP). For using as manufacturing products, it’s needed to improve modeling accuracy by reduce of the warpage, to evaluate the stiffness of the product. So, we studied the process simulation of plastic 3D printer that calculates warpage and residual stress and the optimization of shape. We are approaching by two way, inherent strain method and thermo-mechanical analysis. We report about these case study and the comparison of these calculation.