Applying feedback control to improve 3D printing quality

Applying feedback control to improve 3D printing quality

Gootjes, Didier (TU Delft Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering)

van den Boom, Ton (mentor)

Delft University of Technology

2017-08-08

Small-scale 3D-printing has become a common appearance. Today there are many companies specialized in selling and designing small-scale 3D-printers . Applications range from creating custom-made toys to creating spare parts for the 3D-printer itself as well as medical applications such as skull parts, knee replacements and hip replacements. The research and development start-up company HB|3D uses a 6 degrees-of-freedom robotic arm combined with a plasticating single-screw extruder and heated hose to create large-scale thermoplast products. One challenge is to scale up the 3D-printing process while ensuring a high-quality product.

Feedback control looks promising in increasing the dimensional accuracy of large-scale printed objects by influencing the screw speed to minimize flow disruptions. The goal is to create a simulation of a model predictive controller and show that an output flow trajectory can be tracked within 1 percent accuracy.

The flow response is modeled using a commercially available computational fluid dynamics software package (ANSYS FLUENT Academic Research version 18.1). This computationally intensive model is simplified using system identification techniques; resulting in a wiener model.

Finally, a simulation of using a model predictive controller to track an output flow reference signal is then performed.

3D printing
MPC
feedback

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:49a31f6e-5b28-48ce-b5f4-4e71fbf4009b

Student theses

master thesis

© 2017 Didier Gootjes