The perspective of topology optimization on 3d printed furniture prototypes sim-AM 2019

Abstract

Summary. A new design starts from an idea and become a final product, during design process the evaluation stage it’s a necessity, the most useful evaluation tool is prototyping. Conceptual models are very important in product design. Improving product quality is always an important issue of manufacturing, even if a design study is well organized it is possible some errors may still escape from the review of engineers and designers. The touch of the physical objects can reveal unanticipated problems and sometimes spark a better design. With the traditional method, developing of prototypes to validate or optimize a design is often time consuming and costly. Inject Binder is one of the most well-developed rapid prototyping or additive manufacturing technology, actually is a Powder-based inkjet 3D printing method. Mainly is a powder-based RP system in which a binder solution spays onto pre-deposited powder layers. One of the main advantage of this method is the production of fullcolor models suitable for architecture maquets, prototypes of new products like furniture and other objects. In prototyping process, a restriction is production cost that basically depends from the amount of printed material. In current study furniture prototypes are printed in a inject binder printer, the printed models have common design like a chair and a table. The raw materials used in this study were a plaster-based powder (zp151) and an appropriate water based solution with 2-Pyrrolidone as a binder (zb63). Three different model of each model (three chairs and three tables) are printed, the main difference between them is wall thickness, the first model thickness is 5mm, the second 10mm and third is 20mm. The printed parts tested in a compression tester device to check models elasticity and compressive resistance. Then the lab results used to create a FEA (Finite Element Analysis) study in a popular CAE program. In the final stage, the perspective of an optimization study are presented to determine an optimized shell geometry and wall thickness. The paper discusses useful tools for designers and engineers in order to decide the appropriate wall thickness and shell geometry (pattern) of furniture pieces, so to avoid model over dimension. And check functional and aesthetic aspects before massive production. Copyright © COMPLAS 2019.