March 2015

Conference Paper

Breaking Barriers in Polymer Additive Manufacturing

By:
Love, Lonnie J; Duty, Chad E; Post, Brian K; Lind, Randall F; Lloyd, Peter D; Kunc, Vlastimil ; Peter, William H; Blue, Craig A
Publication Date:
March 2015
Conference Name:
SAMPE
Conference Location:
Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America

Abstract

Additive Manufacturing (AM) enables the creation of complex structures directly from a computer-aided design (CAD). There are limitations that prevent the technology from realizing its full potential. AM has been criticized for being slow and expensive with limited build size. Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has developed a large scale AM system that improves upon each of these areas by more than an order of magnitude. The Big Area Additive Manufacturing (BAAM) system directly converts low cost pellets into a large, three-dimensional part at a rate exceeding 25 kg/h. By breaking these traditional barriers, it is possible for polymer AM to penetrate new manufacturing markets.