Solid freeform fabrication (SFF) is the name given to a process that manufacturing arbitrary structure by single process. SFF allows three-dimensional fabrication directly from CAD data. Many researchers have tried to expand SFF technology into direct...
Solid freeform fabrication (SFF) is the name given to a process that manufacturing arbitrary structure by single process. SFF allows three-dimensional fabrication directly from CAD data. Many researchers have tried to expand SFF technology into direct product manufacturing. However, conventional SFF technologies have disadvantage that its equipment is usually expensive and materials are limited. Thus, researchers have focused on the development of novel SFF technology that more economic and simple. One of them is direct writing (DW) system. DW is a method that patterning the materials to the substrate without a mask directly. It can use a variety of materials and be applied to various fields. DW system is classified to droplet, energy beam, flow and tip based method. Among DW systems, flow-based type using a syringe pump and nozzle is simpler than other types. Furthermore, the range of materials is exceptionally wide.
In additive process, the three dimensional structure is made of stacking layers. And each layer is made of several lines. In this regards, the good surface roughness of fabricated layer is essential to three dimensional fabrication. The surface roughness of fabricated layer tends to change by dispensing pattern. When the multiple layers fabricated by nozzle dispensing system are stacked, a control of nozzle position from substrate is important in order to avoid interference between nozzle and fabricated layer.
In this study, fluid direct writing system for the three dimensional structure fabrication was developed. And some experiment were conducted in order to examine characteristic of material used in this system. In addition, in order to increase the surface roughness, the effect of various dispensing pattern on the surface roughness was experimentally studied. And the research that how to control the position of nozzle from substrate was conducted.