A desktop 3D printer with dual extruders to produce customised electronic circuitry

Abstract

3D printing has opened new horizons for the manufacturing industry in general, and 3D printers have become the tools for technological advancements. There is a huge divide between the pricing of industrial and desktop 3D printers with the former being on the expensive side capable of producing excellent quality products and latter being on the low-cost side with moderate quality results. However, there is a larger room for improvements and enhancements for the desktop systems as compared to the industrial ones. In this paper, a desktop 3D printer called Prusa Mendel i2 has been modified and integrated with an additional extruder so that the system can work with dual extruders and produce bespoke electronic circuits. The communication between the two extruders has been established by making use of the In-Chip Serial Programming port on the Arduino Uno controlling the printer. The biggest challenge is to control the flow of electric paint (to be dispensed by the new extruder) and CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) analysis has been carried out to ascertain the optimal conditions for proper dispensing. The final product is a customised electronic circuit with the base of plastic (from the 3D printer’s extruder) and electronic paint (from the additional extruder) properly dispensed to create a live circuit on a plastic platform. This low-cost enhancement to a desktop 3D printer can provide a new prospect to produce multiple material parts where the additional extruder can be filled with any material that can be properly dispensed from its nozzle.

Keywords

3D printing / Arduino Uno / extruder / multiple materials / electronic circuits / customisation / CFD analysis

References

[1] Jones R, Haufe P, Sells E, RepRap—The replicating rapid prototyper. Robotica, 2011, 29(1): 177–191

[2] Malone E, Lipson H. Fab@Home: The personal desktop fabricator kit. Rapid Prototyping Journal, 2007, 13(4): 245–255

[3] Borenstein G. Making Things See: 3D Vision with Kinect, Processing, Arduino, and MakerBot. Canada: O’Reilly Media, Inc., 2012. Retrieved from http://www.makingthingssee.com/

[4] El-Gizawy A S, Corl S, Graybill B. Process-induced properties of FDM products. In: Proceedings of the ICMET, International Conference on Mechanical Engineering and Technology Congress & Exposition. Paris, 2011, ICMET 2011-40936

[5] Macdonald E, Salas R, Espalin D, 3D printing for the rapid prototyping of structural electronics. IEEE Access: Practical Innovations, Open Solutions, 2014, 2: 234–242

[6] MacDonald E, Wicker R, Espalin D, 3D printing of high voltage printed wiring boards. In: Proceedings of Additional Conferences (Device Packaging, HiTEC, HiTEN, & CICMT). 2016, 000542–000565

[7] Liu L, Ge T, Yan Y, UV-assisted 3D-printing of soft ferrite magnetic components for power electronics integration. In: Proceedings of 2017 International Conference on Electronics Packaging (ICEP). Yamagata: IEEE, 2017, 447–450

[8] Tölle F J, Fabritius M, Mülhaupt R. Emulsifier-free graphene dispersions with high graphene content for printed electronics and freestanding graphene films. Advanced Functional Materials, 2012, 22(6): 1136–1144

[9] Shin S R, Farzad R, Tamayol A, A bioactive carbon nanotube-based ink for printing 2D and 3D flexible electronics. Advanced Materials, 2016, 28(17): 3280–3289

[10] Butt J, Mebrahtu H, Shirvani H. Microstructure and mechanical properties of dissimilar pure copper foil/1050 aluminium composites made with composite metal foil manufacturing. Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 2016, 238: 96–107

[11] Butt J. A novel additive manufacturing process for the production of metal parts. Dissertation for the Doctoral Degree. Cambridge: Anglia Ruskin University, 2016

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

2018 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature