Binder Jet Additive Multi-Material Manufacturing for the Transformational Challenge Reactor

Technical Report · Fri Aug 23 04:00:00 EDT 2019

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/2491459· OSTI ID:2491459

Shafer, Christopher ^[1]; Elliott, Amy ^[1]

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1. Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

Additive manufacturing (AM) is a process in which material is deposited in a layer-by-layer fashion, thereby building up a geometry. This contrasts with subtractive manufacturing in which material is removed from bulk feedstock to create a final geometry. Binder jet AM (BJAM) is a specific process in the AM field in which a binder, or glue, is selectively deposited on a bed of spread powder feedstock and cured. Binder is deposited with an inkjet printhead, which allows for high-resolution shaping of the powder layers. Compared with other AM processes, BJAM is fast, efficient, and scalable. Further, BJAM has one of the largest material selections of the powder AM processes as it can process ceramics, plastics, metals, and virtually any powdered material. Thus, the opportunity exists to leverage the versatility and productivity of BJAM to enable multi-material printing, the next generation of AM technology. The aim of this research is the design and manufacture of a purpose-built BJAM machine that can process multiple materials in its normal operation. This binder jet additive multi-material manufacturing (BJAM³) machine will be able to produce parts that have multiple materials intra- and inter-layer. An example of this would be encapsulating metal spheres inside of a ceramic cube or vice versa. This BJAM³ process adds another step of freedom to designing and manufacturing complex parts. The milestone for this work is to provide details on the technical progress made to date on the development of multi-material binder jetting and to facilitate simultaneous additive manufacturing of at least two different powder feedstocks.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 2491459
• Report Number(s): ORNL/SPR--2019/1341; TCR-AM-RPRT-001; TCR-AM-RPRT-001
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
42 ENGINEERING