me3-design-fab-test

Senior Capstone Project Presentation – April 2020

Project Title       The Design, Fabrication and Testing of an Improved Feedstock Powder Spreading System

Name of Student(s)        Javel Wilson, Juvani Downer, Mohammad Alghamdi

Name of Advisor(s)         Jiajun Xu, Shawn Moylan*(*External collaborator)

External Sponsors           National Institute of Standards and Technology

Project Abstract              The scope of this project is to design, fabricate and test an improved feedstock powder spreading system with the flexibility and robustness to facilitate detailed analysis, providing insight on the powder spreading process that a commercial Powder Bed Fusion AM system would not allow for. It is critical that the system fabricated accurately replicates the powder spreading process seen in commercial based Additive Manufacturing machines. In order to guarantee efficiency of the system a motor-powered recoating mechanism must be in place to allow uniform spreads of the feedstock powder across the substrate. There also need to be a means in which we can guarantee repeatable and accurate initial powder doses. The design should allow for testing with different substrate as well as implementation of a linear actuator enabling movement of the platform stage in the Z-direction. The strategic placement of small high-speed cameras will allow in-situ characterization of the system; providing real-time insight on its spreading efficiency. Three dimensional models are created to visually represent the system prior to fabrication.