Senior Design Team sdmay18-05 • 3D Metal Printer

Our team is working with Dr. Timothy Bigelow to create a 3D metal printer which has nondestructive evaluation capabilities. Though metal 3D printing is not novel, the act of evaluating the the printed part as it is being printed is a novel idea. Our team is building a full sintering 3D metal printer which has 3 lasers. First, there is the usual main melt laser which most all metal 3D printers have. In addition to this, there is a pulse laser and a third laser with an interferometer; these lasers are used in conjunction to perform nondestructive evaluation of printed parts.

This project is unique in that it requires a diverse range of engineering skills- there are mechanical problems, optics problems, as well as electronics and controls problems. Our team has a diverse background as well, and we are very motivated to solve all of these problems.

After a full academic year of working on the project, our team has completed the mechanical design of the sealed chamber and movement system, developed basic software to print rectangular prisms with specified defects, and designed a sensor system to monitor the printing environment. The project will be continued by a future group, who could work on the melt laser installation and testing, NDE system, and various other improvements to the foundation we have created.