Question

01: i. Explain the manufacturing process (3D printing) For all Items given bellow include the steps and materials used to be produced. 1. Door Handle Attachment 2. Hand Sanitizer 3. Face Masks 4. Oxygen Valves 5. COVID 19 test sabs

Answer 1

Hi, thanks for the question.

The process of 3D Printing is one of the most recent advancements in the world of manufacturing. It involves manufacturing a product by adding/depositing layers of material on top of each other into the intended shape by following set direction by the g-code that is fed to the printer. The usage of the 3D printer allows the manufacturing process to become robust, fast, and more versatile and allows faster creation of prototypes. This further allows the product design and re-iteration process to become faster. And that further allows the time for the product to reach the market to become shorter.

For manufacturing a door handle the best method of 3D printing would be fused deposition modeling (FDM) which is one of the most commonly used methods. It is cost-effective, the parts have a good finish, adequate strength, and do not require a lot of post-processing for the part to be strong. The material can be metal-filled PLA which can produce the look and feel like conventional metals and yet remain usable for end-users. ABS can be used if the strength of the part has to be stronger than usual. Nylon can also be used, but that will cause the costs to increase dramatically.

For Hand Sanitizer, 3D printing can print the container or the dispenser mechanism. Since the dispenser mechanism needs to be strong yet cost-effective to be mass-produced, SLS or selective laser sintering method can be used. This allows the part to be quite strong and yet be cost-effective to an extent. The newest advancement in this field is using a method called as DMLS or direct metal laser sintering. Materials like aluminum, nickel alloy, stainless steel, titanium can easily be 3D printed using this method.

For face masks, the usual method of FDM can be used to manufacture the face masks. This method can produce masks that are cost-effective, good quality, various designs, and yet be personalized as per every user. This can be done using PET-G or PLA since both of these materials are versatile and cost-effective and do not harm humans in direct contact.

Oxygen valves can be manufactured using material deposition models in order to produce parts of greater strength. But, the parts produced are not strong enough to be used directly off from the build plate of the printer. The parts from metal 3D printing with material deposition techniques need to be cured in resin bases over a set period of time in order to make sure that the pores are all filled, and the material solidifies into a solid piece. Also, during curing, the resin material makes the printed material more human interaction friendly. The material that can be used for this method is stainless steel or copper.

For Covid-19 test swabs, the easiest method is to use a conventional FDM model or Stereolithography (SLA) printing technique to print the swabs. Though FDM is cost-effective, SLA printed parts have far superior surface finish and can print more exotic materials. Also, the printing method is faster with SLA Printing. So, the swabs printed via SLA would allow the parts to look exactly like conventional swabs, and yet be more personalized to a certain demographic or a certain population. Most SLA materials are resins that cure immediately due to the application of the laser. Also, SLA was the first 3D printing technique to be invented and hence is perfect for printing testing swabs for Covid-19.