Metal FDM 3D Printer For EDM Electrode Fabrication

This open research is dealing with the field of 3D Printing, according to the general concepts of Additive Manufacturing and Fused Deposition Modeling(FDM). Based on the significant progress that has been experienced these last years on 3D Printing and the influence of research communities on this progress, this research is centered on exploring some original solutions in order to generate a new operational innovation. The idea here is to find a way to print with a material different from plastic, in particular metal materials, but following FDM concept.Using metal materials for 3D printing will offer a completely new field of possibilities for 3D printing. Compared to plastic materials used currently, it is a completely different choice with the main difference of thermo-electrical conduction and also mechanical strength. Users can then imagine objects to print in metal as jewelries or small mechanical parts.The goal of this study is to design a head printing system that is adapted to 3 axis robot and to use it in order to prove the feasibility of metal FDM 3D printing. Once the feasibility is proved, the finality would be to print an electrode for EDM manufacturing, this would open many options to conduct research on this thematic.The main contents of this research work include a short presentation of 3D printing, a review of some ideas and possibilities that lead to an hypothetic solution to reach the objective. For the most interesting solution, a prototype will be designed, produced and used to prove the feasibility of metal FDM 3D printing respecting some basic constraints like simplicity, cost and user’s convenience.