Design of an intelligent rapid nozzle cleaning control system for fused deposition modelling 3D printers

Design of an intelligent rapid nozzle cleaning control system for fused deposition modelling 3D printers

Wei WeiNing Chen Jiufeng Zhang Xinyu Zhang 

Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Surface Engineering and Remanufacturing, Xi’an University, No.1 Science and Technology Six Road, Xi’an 710065, China

School of Mechanical and Precision Instrument Engineering, Xi’an University of Technology, No.5 South Jinhua Road, Xi'an 710065, China

School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Xi’an University, No.1 Science and Technology Six Road, Xi’an 710065, China

School of Information Engineering, Xi’an University, No.1 Science and Technology Six Road, Xi’an 710065, China

Corresponding Author Email: 
zhangxinyu1112@sina.com
Page: 
704-708
|
DOI: 
https://doi.org/10.18280/ijht.360236
Received: 
15 September 2017
| |
Accepted: 
5 February 2018
| | Citation

OPEN ACCESS

Abstract: 

This paper aims to overcome the poor effect and slow speed of traditional cleaning methods for clogged nozzles of the fused deposition modelling (FDM) 3D printers. For this purpose, a high-temperature melting experiment was carried out on thermoplastics, and a thermal analysis was performed by fitting the differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) curve was fitted by cubic spline interpolation. On this basis, an intelligent, rapid nozzle cleaning control system was developed considering the physical cleaning method. The system was applied to clean the clogged nozzle of an actual FDM printer. The results show that the system can complete the cleaning task rapidly without damaging the nozzle. The control system works stably, automatedly and conveniently, providing a guarantee for the effective and timely operation of FDM printers. The research findings shed new light on the application and promotion of FDM 3D printers.

Keywords: 

FDM, DSC, nozzle cleaning, 3D printer

1. Introduction
2. High-Temperature Melting Experiment and Thermal Analysis
3. Hardware Design of Control System
4. Software Design of Control System
5. System Test
6. Conclusions
Acknowledgement
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