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Fiber Composite 3D Printing (The Bug)by Sebastian Morales on August 26, 2014

Table of Contents

Fiber Composite 3D Printing (The Bug)  .............................................................................................

Intro: Fiber Composite 3D Printing (The Bug)  ......................................................................................

Step 1: Motivations and inspirations  .............................................................................................

Step 2: Research and testing  ..................................................................................................

Step 3: IIT MMAE Department and IIT's IdeaShop  ..................................................................................

Step 4: Design. Make. Test. Repeat...  ...........................................................................................

Step 5: Generating the Path  ..................................................................................................

Step 6: First Prints!!!  ........................................................................................................

Step 7: Code generating the path  ..............................................................................................

Step 8: Latest Print!  ......................................................................................................... 1

Related Instructables  ........................................................................................................ 1

Advertisements  ............................................................................................................... 1

Comments  ................................................................................................................ 1

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Author:Sebastian Morales  More cool stuff (portfolio)

Mechanical Engineer who loves merging science and art.

Intro:  Fiber Composite 3D Printing (The Bug)Think of this machine as a very friendly sculpting spider.

For my last semester as an undergrad at IIT, I decided to give my education a twist and create my own research project. Fascinated by natures way to fabricate, I gotinspired to create the Bug, a 3D printer-like robot that can create using composite fibers.

Step 1: Motivations and inspirationsFiber composites have been present for thousands of years now, they have evolved significantly into technologically advanced materials that today offer advantages lstrength-to-weight ratio, flexibility or even insulating capabilities.

Today, we are living in a digital fabrication era where computers and prototyping machines are transforming our surroundings from mass-produced products into a woof endless customization. 3D printers have played a pivotal role in this desktop revolution, the speed of this additive process, as well as the low waste and relative lowcost have made them a most-have machine for engineers, designers and researchers. 3D printers however are limited to layers and the strength of the bond betweenthem, making parts significantly weaker than parts of the same materials made by injection molding, machining or casting. These days the market for 3D printers isgetting crowded, and yet the market for fiber composites rapid prototyping has been barely explored.

Most of the inspiration was narrowed form nature, looking how animals and insects are able to create by mixing elements. My trip was also inspired by a trip to the MeLabs, where I saw a an amazing pavilion made by combining brilliant brains and hard working silk worms. If you don't know what I'm talking about you should.

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Step 2: Research and testingWith no time to lose I found myself spending hours trying to come up with ways to do this. Researching different resins I could use, different fibers I should start with, wsort of robot I would move all of these, how I would handle the extrusion of fibers and how they would bond and retain shape.

I decided to go for the UV cured type resins and tested a bunch of them until I found one that would cure fast enough and was able to retain shape. In the picture you see my testing setup and an extruded thread holding horizontally once exposed to the process.

Step 3: IIT MMAE Department and IIT's IdeaShopRealizing that I was not going to have enough time to design my own robotic CNC machine I decided I should try to get an existing one. I did some research into somerepraps, the shapeoko and others, at the end Christmas came early with the donation by Ph.D Matt Spenko, a Fab at Home, an early 3D printer made by a group ofstudents a couple years ago and left behind in the lab.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank my advisor in this project, Ph.D. Matt Spenko and my unofficial advisor John Welin at the IdeaShop that not onlyprovided me with tools, but more important, knowledge and challenges.

Thanks again!

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Step 4: Design. Make. Test. Repeat...Iterations. As you can see I did a couple until the time was up and I could no longer do more within the original time plan.

At one point I also changed my LEDs for 3W ones, huge improvement in curing time!

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Image Notes1. Thread comes in.2. Resin is pumped in3. Thread soaked in resin comes out.

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Step 5: Generating the PathAt the beginning, I didn't have an efficient way to generate the path, I had to select the points almost by hand. For this reason I came decided that the first print shoulda simple 3 dimensional bell curve. I simplified the surface into a series of curves that intersected at the center and decided to give it a shot.

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Step 6: First Prints!!!The first couple of prints were very demanding and time consuming, a lot of monitoring was needed and problems with the Z-belt meant that I had pause the print toreadjust the z-axis. The 3rd print however, was very rewarding as the object made looks somewhat to what I wanted to create!

Step 7: Code generating the pathProcessing 2.0!

Using Processing I was able to grab any 3D model and extract a path for the machine to follow. In the images you can see some of the progress and how it went fromvery chaotic randomness to a more smooth organized randomness, if that makes any sense. I also decided that it would work best if the machine would first make asupporting grid first and then it bonded the surfacing lines on top.

Here I would also like to thank John Mercouris for his help and trouble shooting while writing the code.

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Step 8: Latest Print!It has been a long way and I cannot yet see the finish, but the road looks amazing.

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Comments

29 comments Add Comment

 samern says:  Aug 28, 2014. 1:29 PM REP

This is so very interesting. Like you I was bitten by this bug some time ago and about 3 years ago built and ran a Fab@Home. I still have it and recentlyadded a Sanguinololu board to run it. However the belt system leaves a lot to be desired and I am converting to leadscrews. I had looked at turning it into alarge format printer with dual heads and even a light duty CNC machine (I originally had it running with a dremel head) but this is most intriguing. I would loto see how this evolves if it does any further.

 Sebastian Morales says:  Aug 28, 2014. 6:50 PM REP

The belts! ahhh! what this project really needs is an arm. I am sure you have seen the shapeoko, but I think it could be ideal for what you are trying to d

 samern says:  Aug 29, 2014. 8:37 AM REP

At one point I debated that the entire printer actually be an arm and in fact I saw Lockheed Martin's industrial sized printer in action that does exactlthat. It's a robotic arm with an extruder at the end. What can't be simpler! No rails, no gantries, no rods, no belts, no leadscrews. Just 3 steppers witarms and the extruder. Hmmmmmm.....

 samern says:  Aug 28, 2014. 7:47 PM REP

I actually have a ShapeOKO and I used the left over acrylic from the Fab@Home to build a small desktop CNC machine. I am going to use aRasberry Pi as the computer and a GrblPi as the motor controller. It makes the system completely independent. I have a small monitor that I can usand that makes the unit completely self contained. But for the Fab@Home, I have 12" in X and Y and only 6" in Z because of the shape of the tablePutting in leadscrews turns the Z motor 90 degrees which consumes some Z travel. What I like about the Fab@Home chassis is the ability tointerchange the head. So I bought a spindle for it AND a dual head extruder. With leadscrews I have zero slop and very accurate and high resolutioUsing Teacup I then can do 2D and 3D work by simply swapping out the head. If I take this project to its logical conclusion, I would replace all theacrylic parts with aluminum and tap all the holes eliminating the large number of thermoplastic inserts. It really is a solid chassis and it's terrible that

was abandoned as a structure -- it has a lot of potential. The gantry (what you refer to as an arm) enables you to do CNC operations as well asprinting because the structure is so rigid.

 Sebastian Morales says:  Aug 29, 2014. 6:35 AM REP

I wasn't refering to the gantry, more like the KUKA robotic arms.

 starslayer says:  Aug 28, 2014. 8:45 PM REP

I know this is not exactly your end goal, but have you attempted to print a continuous sliced print much like the existing 3d printers achieve. I am curious ifyour finished product of hardened resin and threat would have unique properties which may make it a viable 3d printing technology on its own, further haviit 'print everywhere' and scaling back to a looser more random print may be easier to achieve in code then starting from scratch.

Second thought- ditch the LEDs and get a laser on the activation frequency instead, single point of exposure, much greater power available.

 Sebastian Morales says:  Aug 29, 2014. 6:29 AM REP

One of the reasons I made this printer is because I wanted to avoid the traditional methods of layering slices. Making a part by layers reduces thestrength of the part since at the end it will only be as strong as the bonds between layers. Fiber reinforced composites have the advantages that thefibers are multidirectional and overlapping (this is what I was trying to achieve with the random patterns) giving the part a higher strength-to-weight rati

Using lasers would be nice, and it would definitely make it more controllable. The reason I didn't did it yet is because in this iterations the extruder is novery sturdy and if the fiber were to move just slightly out of range it would not cure at all. In the future however, I do see it as a viable option.

 jharve says:  Aug 26, 2014. 3:50 PM REP

Looks good, when do you start on the wrist mounted web slingers?

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 lolukotun says:  Aug 28, 2014. 8:29 AM REP

Yeah, does your 3D printer come with wrist straps?

 Sebastian Morales says:  Aug 28, 2014. 6:54 PM REP

Imagine that!!! wow that would be amazing!

 Ottoclav says:  Aug 28, 2014. 12:06 PM REP

I'm a sophomore working towards a ME degree as well. Amazing stuff, and you have given me some amazing ideas about this project. Wish I wasknowledgable enough to help you work on this!

 Sebastian Morales says:  Aug 28, 2014. 6:46 PM REP

Hey Otto(clav),

Are you also at IIT? It is an amazing school, even more so if you dare to go a little outside of the curricula. Don't worry about being knowledgable,knowledge comes with interest and drive.

 Sirjotalot says:  Aug 28, 2014. 4:26 PM REP

Composite fiber in a single layer or as close to it as possible could make some very cool things. If you are looking for ideas of what to make I have a fewideas for you that could be something someday. Not sure if you want to try suggestions or not. You can let me know and we'll go from there.

 waynesl says:  Aug 28, 2014. 4:11 PM REP

Brilliant work, Sebastian! Keep on hackintg!

 blightcp says:  Aug 28, 2014. 2:24 PM REP

You seem to really be on a great start already. A couple of thoughts that I had when looking at this were.

Enclose the UV exposure into a single spot just after extrusion. This way you could selectively expose or underexpose sections, this could allow you to maa intersection that could be exposed at the same time together adding rigidity.

Add a 2nd or 3 axis on the head to prevent the fiber from needing to bend constantly this would help get the vectors tighter also it would allow some tensioon the line at points.

This reminds me of how racing sails are made but they don't expose while laying down the fiber.

Great job keep going. This would be a great way to make a shell for further fiber-glassing, removing the need to sculpt a form on a low volume production.

 organicelectrics says:  Aug 28, 2014. 8:57 AM REPAwesome. Thank you for sharing your inspiration from nature. That totally resonates with me. Using textiles is a great idea.

 lolukotun says:  Aug 28, 2014. 8:32 AM REP

You've done an awesome job with this! Keep up the good work. I've oftentimes talked about spiders when describing 3D printers to laypeople. And here youare, not only talking about it, but demonstrating just how cool / amazing that overlap can be. The light curing process you've developed is amazing. Thanks foincluding us in the fun process of discovery!

 bsmirnov says:  Aug 28, 2014. 6:26 AM REP

Fantastic !

 dr_bigben says:  Aug 28, 2014. 5:56 AM REP

This is amazing with incredible potential. It is really cool that you chose to put this on instructibles too.

 sleepinggiant says:  Aug 28, 2014. 5:08 AM REP

Looking very cool so far, I understand the potential here, go go go!

 Poppy Ann says:  Aug 28, 2014. 4:40 AM REP

Hi Just wanted to say what a great idea does the resin harden any faster when at a higher temperature? or is it just the UV light that sets it off?

I wish you luck with the future progress do not get put off due to setbacks everyone gets them.

regards Poppy Ann.

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 karl84 says:  Aug 26, 2014. 11:09 AM REP

Wow. So this is how it's done. Almost like digital hunches. Completing incomplete topography.

 Sebastian Morales says:  Aug 27, 2014. 6:29 PM REP

"Digital hunches" I like that... thanks

 jgarciaforteza says:  Aug 27, 2014. 2:00 PM REP

Really good Idea, lots of potential. From the images of your printing test I would say that having a consistent coat of resin as you deposit the string is one othe big challenges. Having an irregular resin coat affects curing time and pliancy of the string. Getting the string stiff enough to hold its shape and not over

it must require a lot of tweaking. Have you considered a peristaltic pump to control the flow of the resin? They can be really precise and since they use thetubing instead of a chamber you don't have to worry about clogs or messes. Another idea is that viscosity can be an issue. If it is too fluid the resin can rundown and bead. Maybe if you apply a little UV light before you coat the string you can change its viscosity and that could help get a more consisting coat.

Best of luck and keep us posted!

 Sebastian Morales says:  Aug 27, 2014. 6:26 PM REP

You are totally right, the feeding of the resin is one of the biggest challenges. At the beginning I was was feeding it through a syringe but I quickly got aperistaltic pump. I didn't quite got into that detail in the instructable but you can see it in the picture below (on the left). It made things better but the speisn't perfect and sometimes I had too much resin leaking and clogging the nuzzle.

Some of the huge blobs you see in the picture was me with the syringe artificially reinforcing the bonds between intersecting threads. In the future thiswould be integrated into the code and idealy it work cleanly.

 MsSweetSatisfaction says:  Aug 26, 2014. 9:08 AM REPWow that a really awesome project. Thanks so much for sharing it! Good luck on the rest of your journey.

 Sebastian Morales says:  Aug 26, 2014. 6:06 PM REP

Thanks! I'm glad people like it, it has been a lot of work but hopefully I'll get some more progress soon.

 DaBootO says:  Aug 26, 2014. 11:36 AM REP

You're one of the hardcore Makers! Well done!

 Sebastian Morales says:  Aug 26, 2014. 5:59 PM REP

Thanks! hopefully many better to come...