Week 12

 This week, we have learned the fundamentals of Digital Fabrication.

In this increasingly digitized and globalised society, most of the manufacturers are shifting towards more advanced manufacturing technologies such as digital fabrication.

But what can we do with what we have learned?

Why Digital Fabrication❓

Digital fabrication enables us to 

1. Make objects that we need and when we need to.

2. It is also fully customisable to individual needs.

Most importantly, digital fabrication is fast and becoming an important technology in many chemical engineering fields.

How does digital fabrication benefit us❓

1. Good for Prototyping:

• Allows physical evaluation of the design.

• Perform functional testing before committing to full production run.

• Print numerous design iterations to identify.

• Remove errors before full production.

2. Good for End Use Parts:

• Allows extend lifespan of older equipment by printing obsolete parts.

• Reverse-engineer spare parts.

• Customisable high value or low volume End-Use production.

Interesting Examples of 3D Printing:

1. Students from University of Connecticut (UConn)

From this photo, these two chemical engineering students have developed a prototype for an artificial kidney by making use of 3D-printed parts and hollow fibre membrane technology.

2. Material Research for 3D printing

This is a chemical engineering student from Texas Tech University. He discovered that only the Carbon Nanotubes infused in printable polymer filaments heat up quickly when exposed to the microwave and hence can fuse together the layers in a 3D print making it stronger.

3. Reactor and fluid flow study.

Figure above illustrates the fluid flow study by using digital fabrication.

Activity Time❗❗❗

For our group, we are tasked to conduct a mini lecture by introducing the FDM type of 3D printing design requirements, especially slicer setting for fast printing.

Our presentation will need to include :

1. Discuss briefly how slicer setting such as layer height, print speed, part orientation, infill density, supports and etc. can affect the time required for 3D printing.

2. Introduce important 3D printing terminologies such as infill density and pattern, layer height, etc.

Below are our presentation slides:

Quiz Time❗❗❗:

We were given 2 attempts to answer the quiz. Although we may not have done well in our first attempt, we did our best for our 2nd attempt to score more marks than our first attempt.