Multi-Material Additive Manufacturing Through 3D Printing Plastics on Laser-machined, Chemically Enhanced Metal

Materials are classified by their chemistry and associated properties. Metals, ceramics, woods, plastics, and all the unmentioned types and subcategories each come with their own qualities which make them suited for specific tasks. To produce parts to fill these roles, a variety of manufacturing disciplines have been created and iterated on such that the best outcomes can be achieved. A more recent form of manufacturing that has gained significant private and public attention and adoption is Additive Manufacturing (AM), where instead of molding matter through the removal of material through cutting and grinding like classical manufacturing, products are created fully formed through the solidification of feed stock.

Hybrid Manufacturing (HM) seeks to bridge the gap between these processes and materials to increase the suitability of the composite as a whole by bolstering advantages or overcoming shortcomings of its melded constituents. The intent of this Thesis is to blend HM and AM processes to create cohesive parts formed from a conventionally manufactured metal plate and additively deposited thermoplastics that perform better than adhering the two disparate materials by conventional means such as commercial glue or epoxy.

Typically in AM, the part is created on a build plate and then removed to then be used in isolation or as a component in a larger machine. This research is focused on replacing the standard build plate with a metallic part such that, when removed from the build area, the final product is one cohesive part with two regions consisting of the properties of either the metal or the plastic. For the extent of this research, this printable surface is replaced with 6061 Aluminum whose surface has been altered to improve adhesion of the interface with the plastic. During the experiments done on a PRUSA 3D printer Polyethylene terephthalate glycol (PETG) and Polyvinyl butyral (PVB) filaments were tested. Key to the alteration of the aluminum is laser-ablating micro-patterns into its surface to physically change its surface energy and provide channels for chemical-altering substances to reside.