Compensated printing and characterization of the droplet on the binder migration pattern during casting sand mold 3D printing

With its unique advantages, binder jetting additive manufacturing technology has shown significant development potential in the additive manufacturing of complex casting sand mold. After droplet deposition, the permeation and migration of the liquid binder in the porous powder bed have a critical impact on the final performance of the printed sand mold. Taking the piezoelectric printhead as the research object, using Furan resin as the liquid binder and silica particles for the powder bed, the effect of binder content on the dimensional accuracy and mechanical properties of the formed sand mold parts was discussed. Several samples were printed with different volumes of droplets, and the droplet diffusion mode, dimensional accuracy, mechanical properties, and formability were measured, respectively. These indicators were quantified based on the different binder saturation, by comprehensively considering the correlation between the indicators. The methods of grayscale printing and layer thickness compensation are given to improve the product quality. The results show that a more extensive liquid saturation produces better strength and formability with the tradeoff of a significant increase in dimension error. However, by independently adjusting the droplet amount of the liquid binder at each printhead, the desired dimension inaccuracy, strength, and formability can be achieved at each precise place. The future application can be implemented in the binder jetting of precision casting sand mold 3D printing to accelerate its industrial development.

Automated summary

Binder jetting additive manufacturing technology plays an important role in the manufacturing of complex casting sand molds, and the permeation and migration of the liquid binder significantly affect the performance of the produced sand mold. Desired dimensional accuracy, strength, and formability can be achieved by adjusting the droplet amount of the liquid binder at different positions.