Development of Hands-on Additive Manufacturing Courses

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

In this paper, developmental effort towards an Additive Manufacturing senior elective course for undergraduate mechanical engineering students is presented. Additive Manufacturing (AM), commonly known as 3D printing, is a process of fabricating a three-dimensional object in a layer-by-layer fashion using computer-aided design parts as opposed to the subtractive manufacturing process such as milling operation. The digital processing of AM yielded faster adoption in many engineering and educational applications. To develop the next generation of engineers with digital manufacturing skill sets, the AM course offers unique opportunities for undergraduate engineering students. Senior elective in AM course was developed based on the seven different process categories of AM. There are three parts of this course (a) introduction to seven different AM process categories (b) generative design for AM, and (c) design-manufacturing-testing project. Early in the semester, students were introduced to material extrusion AM and the generative design module of Fusion 360 CAD software. In parallel to the regular in-class meeting for seven different AM processes, students were tasked with self-paced generative design for AM-based course modules. In the mid-semester, a comprehensive guideline and rubric of design, manufacturing, and testing (DMT) based projects was provided to the students. Due to the availability of low-cost material extrusion 3D printers, students were tasked to identify load-bearing parts for real-life structural applications. Example parts including L- Bracket, Engine Mount, Engine Bracket, Electric Motor Mounting Bracket, etc. were identified by students. All these example parts are traditionally made by compression molding, metal casting, and machining operations. A justification was required for each team to answer the questions: (a) how AM will overcome the challenges of traditional manufacturing? and (b) what are the benefits of AM? By providing the appropriate justification each team developed their part geometry using the Fusion 360 generative design module. Imported digital parts from Fusion 360 software were then processed within the Fusion 360 slicing software module to implement the design & and processing for manufacturing. The sliced i.e. generated tool path of the generative design part was then used in several bench top thermoplastics based 3D printing machines. After successfully fabricating the parts, each team tested their parts for tensile loading. Tested results were compared with the legacy part which is also a 3D-printed part with no change in the original design. Throughout DMT and regular lecture presentations, high enthusiasm was observed within the class. In addition to the active engagement of students in this course, an essential skillset of digital manufacturing was developed. In the future, this effort will be translated to other AM process categories thus enhancing student engagement and developing the next generation of mechanical and manufacturing engineers.