3D printed parts for series production

3D printing is a very young technology with great potential. Currently, 3D printing is primarily used to produce visual models and prototypes, but the goal is to also 3D print serial production components. The challenge: 3D-printed components behave significantly differently than, for example, parts produced using conventional injection molding. The "Serife-3D" collaborative project of the ecoplus Plastics Cluster has addressed this issue.

The goal of the "Serife-3D" collaborative project, supported by the ecoplus Plastics Cluster, was to develop a sound basis for the design and optimization of 3D-printed serial production components. Because 3D-printed components behave significantly differently than, for example, injection-molded parts, they must also be dimensioned entirely differently. The differences lie, among other things, in the material properties and the processing-related morphology. Therefore, these parameters must be characterized with regard to their suitability for application and their long-term behavior in order to create a guideline for economical and quality-assured product development.

During the three-year project phase, 13 project partners from industry and research examined the various printing processes and conducted a screening of all available printing materials. Based on this, criteria and material parameters relevant for reliable long-term use were defined. A representative selection of materials was made for the economically viable printing processes, and analyses describing physical aging were performed on these materials. This material matrix encompasses all data that, taken together, describe the aging behavior under the respective environmental conditions. The creation of this comprehensive data matrix and the resulting reduction factors form the basis for the reliable dimensioning of 3D-printed components.

The results of the inter-company cooperation project “Serife-3D” form the basis for a follow-up project within the ecoplus plastics cluster, which will focus on the simulation of structurally optimized printed parts.