Date of Award

8-2014

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Department

Chemical and Paper Engineering

First Advisor

Dr. Paul D. Fleming III

Second Advisor

Dr. Margaret Joyce

Third Advisor

Dr. Sam Ramrattan

Fourth Advisor

Dr. Pavel Ikonomov

Keywords

Rapid casting, hybrid technology, precision machining, metal-casting, rapid prototyping, smart coating

Abstract

Developments in rapid casting technologies have led to a new era of inclusion of 3D printing. Three-Dimensional (3D) printing provides the flexibility and ease of reproducing a sand mold directly from CAD models, eliminating patterning steps, thus reducing the process time for creating prototypes. In addition to minimizing processing steps, 3D printing provides the advantages of higher precision and the ability to produce complex shaped sand molds, but it simultaneously possesses some limitations and concerns related to throughput, safety and logistics.

This study proposes an alternative method for creating sand molds by introducing a hybrid rapid prototyping approach to overcome the limitations observed for conventional 3D printing techniques. By this method, thermosetting resin-coated sand particles can be bonded layer-by-layer after being exposed to a high energy photonic light source, which raises the layer temperatures to a desired range for bonding directly followed by precision machining, to obtain complex shapes.

This study focuses on the determination of the physical, mechanical and thermomechanical properties of the printed layers and process functionality, while using both an additive and subtractive approach to selectively integrate machining with the high photonic curing mechanism and on the comparison of the achieved parameters to the results obtained using conventional sand casting techniques.

Access Setting

Dissertation-Open Access

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