Design and Development of Multi Filament Feed mechanism

for Fused Filament Fabrication based Desktop 3D Printer.

Anshu Shukla1 and Pradeep Jain2

1Mechanical Engineering Department, A.K.G.E.C. Ghaziabad.

2Mechanical Engineering Department, A.K.G.E.C.Ghazibad.

anshu17shukla@gmail.com

ABSTRACT. Three dimensional printing or Fused diposition modelling or specially

fused filament fabrication is being used for desktop scale prototyping and
customization of application oriented parts.Nowdays multicolor and multi material
3D printing is on demand for better visualization , communication and for building
some complex hanging parts. But multi-material three dimensional printing is quiet a
difficult task as it complexes the feeding mechanism and increases the size and
weight of the extruder which effects the printing size and printing speed of the 3d
printer. In present work an extruder with multi filament feeding mechanism is
proposed which is capable of feeding filament in switching mode by moving the
extruder head at the home position. The proposed objective enables printing with
different colors and materials without stopping the operational process while
changing the filaments.The major advantage of proposed objective is that light
weight cold end extruder is driven by only one motor and fused filament extruded
through only single nozzle. By providing mechanism that locks in two positions
engaging and disengaging of filament can be faciliated.

Keywords.Three dimensional printing , Fused diposition modelling, Fused filament

fabricaton, Multi material 3D printing, Cold end extruder, Filament feed mechanism.
INTRODUCTION. Fused Diposition Modeling or 3d printing is the process of
adding material layer upon layer in order to built an desired 3dimensional object
according to the cad design provided to the 3d printer. It is an additive manufacturing
technique which means that objects are built by addition of material in calculated and
precise manner according to the geometrical coordinates of the CAD design. During the
process thermoplastic extruder is used to deposit tiny beads (or strings) of plastic to draw
a picture as it is moved over the build surface. The ability to print a 3D object from a
digital file is a break-through technology. Three-dimensional printing technology has
shown a rapid growth in the last few years. The principle of 3D printing is to bond
materials in layers to create a three-dimensional object. There are several 3D printing
methodologies such as stereolithography apparatus (SLA), selective laser sintering (SLS),
fused filament fabrication (FFF), laminated object manufacturing (LOM), and digital
light processing (DLP) . FFF is one in all the foremost well-liked technologies because of
its simplicity. In FFF, a plastic filament from a spool is driven to the extrusion nozzle
with the assistance of pinch wheel mechanism then passes through the heater with the
required melting temperature. The object is printed layer by layer with the flow of that
melted material on the heated bed. After flowing through the extrusion nozzle, the
material solidifies immediately. The application of pressure in the nozzle pushes the
semisolid material out of the nozzle..

Although a number of advancements have been achieved in the FFF process, there are
still some imperfections. More time is needed to obtain thinner layers in order to build up
an object with more accurate and precise dimensional control. Moreover, the process has
been limited to printing only one type or coloured material at a time. This study provides a
novel solution to such issues as colour, and material limitations to achieve sufficiently fine
and accurate 3D printing. The solution is to implement drive mechanism comprising of
several pieces that operate simultaneously, which could lessen the printing time and allow
the utilization of varieties of colour/material filament.

2. RESEARCH ELABORATION

2.1 What is an Extruder?

The extruder is one of the most important components on 3D printer. It is responsible for
sending the correct amount of filament to the hot end where it is melted and extruded
down in thin layers to make a desired part. Its important to know that the extruder is not
the same as the hot end, though these terms are commonly conflated.The cold end
generally consists of a stepper motor which rotates a toothed gear against a bearing. The
filament (usually 1.75 and 3 mm in diameter) is located in between the gear and bearing.
It is driven toward the hot end when the motor is activated. Different types of gear
combinations (e.g., worm wheel and gear, pinion and gear, or complex gear-box) can be
used to increase the torque and improve the extrusion control. Nowadays, two types of
extruders are commonly used, such as direct extruder and Bowden extruder. Most of the
FFF 3D printers belong to the direct extruder type [1]. In this type of extruder, moving
parts include nozzle, heater, and motor. The motor pulls and drives filament from the cold
end to the hot end directly. For Bowden extruder type, the driving parts are separated from
the hot end and it is the only difference between the direct and Bowden extruder. Bowden
extruder FFF printer has a flexible cable connected between two separate parts. The cable
is known as Bowden cable, or sometimes, it is also called as Teflon tube (because of the
material used). Thermoplastic filament is driven inside the tube in order to get a
permanent feed of the material to the moving hot end. There is a thermal insulator or
break in between the cold end and hot end, which joins these two ends and prevents heat
conduction between the two ends. The thermal insulator is normally made of PEEK
plastic with polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) liners. Groove mounts are also used to
connect the cold end to the hot end.

The purpose of the hot end is to melt the filament. It is normally made of brass, but in
some case, aluminium and glass are used in order to reduce the weight of the hot end. The
hot end consists of a heating chamber with two holes. One hole is for filament feed in, and
the other hole is for the extrusion of molten plastic. The diameter of the extrusion (tip)
hole of the nozzle varies from 0.3 to 1 mm. The typical working temperature for the hot
end ranges is from 150 to 250 °C. This range includes melting temperatures of the most
popular filaments like acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) and polylactic acid (PLA).
Thermistor or thermocouple is normally used in the feedback loop of the controller to
measure and monitor the temperature. The extruder is mounted to the frame of 3D printer
by different methods and standards. the cold end into the chamber. The simple schematic
diagram of a conventional FFF extruder is shown in fig.- 2.1. The employment of just one
filament feed mechanism limits the 3D printing capabilities, just one single filament can
be set into the extruder at a time, and thus, just one colour material filament is used.
Changing each time, a filament would need a notable time break for the printing process.
The procedure embody pull out the used filament, clean the extruder chamber, and feed in
the next filament.
 Fig. 2.1 Schematc representation of 3D printer extruder
2.2JM2.2

2.

2.2 Why multi-material ?

Most FFF desktop 3D printers are limited to printing with one kind and color of plastic at
a time. There are some tricks you can use to do very limited multi-color prints, such as
printing a few layers then pausing to change to a different filament. Multi-material
printing gives you the ability to make truly multicolored things without painting or post-
processing. Printing with multiple colors makes a surprisingly big difference in how the
finished product looks.beyond just colors, multi-material printing also holds the promise
of making more functional things by combining different kinds of materials in a single
print. For example, you can combine flexible and rigid materials to make prints that can
move and flex in ways that might be difficult or impossible using any traditional
manufacturing method. And one can print supports in a dissolvable material for easy
cleanup of even the most intricate support structures. For the researchers, multi-material
printing is a next-level capability. Combining PLA and TPU in the same object shows the
interesting possibilities for making things with both rigid and flexible materials.
2.3 Methodology.

Understanding the fundamental

Market (need/demand) / Recognition of need

Conceptual design/Idea generation

Conceptual evaluation and feasibility study for concept evaluation

Final product

Test on fff based desktop 3d printer

2.4 Design procedure

After deciding on the specifications and features next step is to design individual
components of the extruder.

2.4.1 Feeding Mechanism

Feeding mechanism is called as extruder, which extrude the filament into the hot end in
desired rate. Based on requirement MK8 extruder assembly is available in market as
shown in fig 2.2.
Fig. 2.2 Mk8 extruder for understanding the fundamentral of extruder and its feed
mechanism.

The first step in the process of 3D printing is to design the part to be printed in any of the
3D modeling software such as Autodesk AutoCAD, Pro-E, Catia, Solidworks etc. In this
case, it was used Nx modeling software to design the desired parts of the direct extruder.

We designed two parts, initial one is the static part, that could be attached with a stepper
motor and the other is a moveable part, which is attached to static part and it can be
moved when the material insertion is required. The static part 60 millimeter in height and
60 millimeters in length. And the moveable part is 20 millimeter in height and its length
is 60 millimeters. The 3D models, shape and parameters of these parts are shown in Table-
2.1
 Table 2.1 The designed 3D Model

3D Model designed by NX

Fig. 2.3.1 3D Model of static part (Motor base plate)

Fig. 2.3.2 3D Model of movable part (Lever)

 Fig. 2.3.3 Model of static part (Multi filament feed nozzle)

Then the designed part is exported in .STL format.

2.5 Output 3D Model of the Extruder part

We used Desk 200 3d printer to print the designed extruder parts. Polylactic acid was used
as printing material.The printed model is shown in Fig. 2.4.

Fig. 2.4 Printed parts of the Extruder

 2.6. Parts needed for assembly

Fig. 2.5 Exrtruder parts needed for assembly

• 1×NEMA17 motor
• 1×Copper Extrusion Head Gear 26 tooth
• 2×M6 nut (spinner for lever)
• 2×Bilateral groove bearing
• 2×M3*8 screw
• 2xM4*8 screw
• 2×M5*8 screw
• 2xM4 nut
• 2×M4*26 screw
• 2×M3*16 screw
• 2×stainless steel spring (20mm height, 1.2 mm dia, 9 laps)
• 2×M3*30 scew
• 1×MK8A part
• 1x hot end with 0.4 mm extruder nozzle
 2.7. After completing the assembly it is implemented on 3d Printer. The
implementation on 3D printer is shown in Fig. 2.6.

Fig. 2.6 Implementation on 3D Printer

Result and Discussion

In this work, a Direct extruder for a 3D printer was designed. This extruder was created
supported FDM technology and supports thermoplastic materials filament of 1.75 mm
diameter. This extruder is extremely simple to implement with a 3D printer, with less
complexity, increase efficiency in terms of motor, usage, weight of extruder, easy to
change filament and less manufacturing Cost. It was required only few components to
construct this extruder and the important parts of this extruder are made by 3D printer.

Conclusion

The 3D printing technology is becoming popular day by day in the field like researchers,
manufacturers, designers, engineers and scientists and FDM is the most used 3D printing
technology. The current single-nozzle 3D FFF printer has limited application. It resulted
in limitation to only a single color/material printing. Multi-color/material printing by
using a single-nozzle extruder requires extra time for filament replacement and nozzle
cleaning, which makes the process complicated and time-consuming. The proposed multi-
nozzle extruder design consists of single nozzle that enable the printing with two different
colors and materials simultaneously. It does not require to stop the operational process for
switching the filaments. Direct-type extruder is selected to prevents the spontaneous
flowing out of material from the nozzle when the head is moved to a different location for
printing and to avoid high friction of filament insertion, for materials with a high degree
of flexibility. In addition, the cold-end is driven by only one stepper motor, which can
greatly reduce the bulkiness and weight of the extruder and thus to increase the printing
speed as comparable to other multi-material extruders available in the market.The aim of
this project was to design and construct a FDM based direct extruder. We constructed a
simple and user friendly direct extruder. We observed that, with this extruder the prints
print almost accurately. Although, in some case a deviation is observed at the thin and
sharp edge of the model. A little wrapping problem is also observed occasionally.The
proposed extrusion model provides a novel technique for 3D printing with multi-colors
and multi-materials.

Refrences

1. https;//www.researchgate.net/publication/308815611 Design and

development of multi-nozzle extrusion system for 3D printer.
2. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/288931563 Multi-nozzle
extrusion system for 3D printer and its control mechanism.
3. https://www.academia.edu/37630604/design and construction of a
bowden extruder for a fdm 3d printer uses 1.75mm filament