This study systematically conducted the integrated design of metal 3D printing mechanisms and computer numerical control machine centers. This study applied Prusa i3 as the original 3D printer and the VMC30 computer numerical control machine center to perform the integrated design. The integration included a BT30 tool holder that can incorporate 3D printer nozzles as computer numerical control tools. The human–machine interface was conducted for the integrated design of the metal 3D printing mechanisms and computer numerical control machine centers. Based on the PrusSlicer and Mastercam software, the G-codes of 3D printing and the NC codes were incorporated for this study. An NC-Code sorting program was also developed in this study. To communicate with the FANUC Series 0i-MF Plus controller and Prusa i3 mk3s 3D printer RAMBo board, an integrated human–machine interface was developed through a TCP/IP protocol and USB protocol by visual C#. The functions available on the interface include reading machine coordinates, temperature control, transmitting NC codes, monitoring, and printing. Results of this study show that the surface roughness of the integrated design was 2.5% compared with the Prusa i3 mk3s, with a tolerance of 0.5%.
Relation:
The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology 125, p.3869-3880
