THE DURABILITY OF LARGE-SCALE ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING COMPOSITE MOLDS

Conference · Thu Dec 31 23:00:00 EST 2015

OSTI ID:1329755

Post, Brian K ^[1]; Love, Lonnie J ^[1]; Duty, Chad ^[2]; Vaidya, Uday ^[3]; Pipes, R. Byron ^[4]; Kunc, Vlastimil ^[1]

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1. ORNL
2. University of Tennessee (UTK) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)
3. University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK)
4. Purdue University

Oak Ridge National Laboratory s Big Area Additive Manufacturing (BAAM) technology permits the rapid production of thermoplastic composite molds using a carbon fiber filled Acrylonitrile-Butadiene-Styrene (ABS) thermoplastic. Demonstration tools (i.e. 0.965 m X 0.559 m X 0.152 m) for composite part fabrication have been printed, coated, and finished with a traditional tooling gel. We present validation results demonstrating the stability of thermoplastic printed molds for room temperature Vacuum Assisted Resin Transfer Molding (VARTM) processes. Arkema s Elium thermoplastic resin was investigated with a variety of reinforcement materials. Experimental results include dimensional characterization of the tool surface using laser scanning technique following demolding of 10 parts. Thermoplastic composite molds offer rapid production compared to traditionally built thermoset molds in that near-net deposition allows direct digital production of the net geometry at production rate of 45 kg/hr.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Manufacturing Demonstration Facility (MDF)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 1329755
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English