Feed Stock Fabrication of AISI 4605 Steel for Fused Deposition Modeling and Sintering and Designing of Its Extruder Mechanism

Abstract

Fused Deposition Modeling and Sintering (FDMS) is one of the indirect and emerging processes of Additive Manufacturing (AM) for the production of metal parts, which is a combination of AM process and Metal Injection Molding (MIM). This study laboratory made a raw material (Feed Stock) composing of high percentage of metal powder (particle in nano-scale) and polymeric materials; and then, designed an extruder to simulate melting and extruding process by Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD). The different variables such as the nozzle diameter (D) of 1, 2, 3 and 4 mm and compression zone length (L2) of 100, 200 and 300 mm were simulated to investigate their impacts on flow rate and required torque to rotate screw. The findings showed that components of feed stock for high physical and mechanical properties of FDMS should account for 55 wt.% of paraffin wax, 25 wt.% of polypropylene, 15 wt.% of carnauba wax and 5 wt.% of stearic acid with optimum percentage of metal powder of 90 wt.%. Also, the optimum value of extruder diameter and compression zone length were 2mm and 200 mm, respectively.

Keywords

• additive manufacturing
• aisi 460 steel alloy
• extruder screw
• fused deposition modeling and sintering