Traditional manufacturing processes have been oriented to large-scale production, past a certain minimum, trying to satisfy a majority of potential users or customers. But there is always a minority that does not find precisely what they need and seeks customisation; this is one of the problems that additive manufacturing tries to address by achieving efficiently products that satisfy the specific requirements of each customer.
Principia has collaborated with designers of 3D-printers. We developed a methodology to simulate the extrusion process in a 3D-printer and generated a parameterised model in Abaqus to control the process in the different situations. We have also modelled specific extrusion scenarios with finite elements, which allows counting on reliable reference models whose parameters can later be modified to investigate their influence in the process.
