Design modeling for additive manufacturing in the case study of a systematic methodology applied to plasma transferred arc additive manufacturing

摘要

This paper presents a case study of systematic implementation of a design method for conceiving and designing additive manufacturing (AM) systems. Integrated function modeling (IFM) is used to systematically design a metal additive manufacturing system for advanced materials with particular mechanical properties. Based on customer’s need, a use case is developed for a new AM machine. This use case is transformed into a process view, where processes are structured to constrain the scope of the system and its functional specific requirements. An IFM is further applied to understand the system from the general to its specific functions as well as to identify the operands and their states. Different design layer implementations of IFM are carried out for mechanical, electronic, and software design and applied for a concept development in a case study. Finally, the actor view is used to carry out high-level system and sub-system decomposition and it is linked to custom fabrication or commercially-out-of-the-shelf system acquisition for building an experimental setup. These systems are integrated to achieve functionality as a proof of concept. The paper demonstrates the application of the methodology through fabrication of a final working prototype based on an integrated Kennametal Starweld 400A Plasma Transferred Arc Source and an in-house three axes motion control system. The paper also explores using digital mock-up and computer-aided design simulation techniques for system design in conjunction with IFM for fabrication. The final intention of this work is to have an initial framework design modeling for Additive Manufacturing products capable of attaining particular functionality to the challenges in this type of manufacturing processes.