Analysis of novel induction heating extruder for additive manufacturing using aluminum filament

Abstract

Induction Heating (IH) method is gaining traction in the field of Additive Manufacturing (AM) as it is a low cost, clean, safe, and precise energy source. Wire as a feedstock material is highly efficient as compared to the powder form in terms of material utilization and economic viability. Thus, the combination of IH and wire feedstock delivery to additive manufacture a part has been explored on an in-house developed novel AM setup. The processing of aluminum wire (Al-5356) in semi-solid form from the extruder, heated using IH method has been performed. The approach adopted in this paper is to perform an in situ infrared imaging to analyze the evolution of thermal field during the extruder heating and metal deposition process. An effective thermal cartography has been undertaken to acquire temperature history of filament, extruder, and deposition process. The temperature profile plot is utilized to understand the temperature distribution and average temperature in the heating, extrusion, and layering process during layer fabrication. The presented work facilitates a priori anticipation to utilize IH as a potential energy source for the metal AM systems. © IMechE 2021.