Design and integration of end-effector for 3D printing of novel UV-curable shape memory polymers with a collaborative robotic system

TL;DR

This paper introduces a robotic additive manufacturing system that uses UV-curable thermoset polymers with fiber reinforcement, enabling free-standing 3D printing and structural applications.

Contribution

It presents the design of a novel end-effector and integration with a collaborative robot for UV-curable polymer 3D printing, including testing with various reinforced resins.

Findings

Resins with up to 50 wt% glass fiber showed high dimensional accuracy.

Resins with at least 2.8 wt% fumed silica achieved good stability.

The system successfully printed small-scale 2D and 3D specimens.

Abstract

This paper presents the initial development of a robotic additive manufacturing technology based on ultraviolet (UV)-curable thermoset polymers. This is designed to allow free-standing printing through partial UV curing and fiber reinforcement for structural applications. The proposed system integrates a collaborative robotic manipulator with a custom-built extruder end-effector designed specifically for printing with UV-curable polymers. The system was tested using a variety of resin compositions, some reinforced with milled glass fiber (GF) or fumed silica (FS) and small-scale, 2D and 3D specimens were printed. Dimensional stability was analyzed for all formulations, showing that resin containing up to 50 wt% GF or at least 2.8 wt% FS displayed the most accurate dimensions.