Physical integrity of 3D printed parts for use as embossing tools

摘要

On inception, 3D printed parts were typically used at prototyping stage to give the end user/customer a real world concept of how the part may appear when traditional manufacturing techniques were employed for final part fabrication. In this context, mechanical properties such as load bearing capacity or wear rate were not typically of primary concern. This paper investigates, given the advances in 3D printing technology, the potential for using 3D printed parts for high throughput embossing tools. The key mechanical properties for embossing tools are compression and wear rate. To this end, commercially available engineering grade photopolymer materials were characterised in terms of compression and wear using ASTM D695 and ASTM G99 standards respectively. Parts were fabricated via the Polyjet ink-jetting 3D printing technique using the commercially available Connex 260 from Stratasys. Given the nature of the fabrication technique, differences in compressive strength of the material based on orientation of build were also investigated.