Authors : John Wong Huang Ung, Shajahan Maidin, Suriati Akmal, Ahmad Syafiq Mohamed and Saiful Bahri Mohamed
Abstract: Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) has been around for several decades and is currently one of the most used Additive Manufacturing (AM) technologies. In FDM, objects are produced by adding material layer by layer. The material extruded from the FDM’s nozzle tip was in the hot semi-molten state above 200°C. Hence when the FDM process involves temperature gradients, the thermal stresses would be present and affects the product quality such as the mechanical strength. This study presents a method to design and analysis of vacuum chamber and examines how the heat transfers from a constant heat source to the surrounding in a low-level vacuum through finite element analysis simulations. A vacuum chamber was successfully designed and could sustain 100 kPA and the thermal simulations showed that, the heat loss from deposited material decreased as the vacuum level increased. The heat transfer from convection was reduced and rapid cooling can be removed. The reduced heat loss will prevent stress to build up and accumulate around the product and improves the specimen’s strength. Results from this study can be used to predict the suitable vacuum environment for improving FDM’s print quality.
John Wong Huang Ung, Shajahan Maidin, Suriati Akmal, Ahmad Syafiq Mohamed and Saiful Bahri Mohamed, 2017. Simulation of Heat Transfer in Vacuum Environment for Fused Deposition Modeling Process. Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences, 12: 7662-7667.