Process-Property-Performance in Large-Scale Robotic 3D Printing for Aerospace Applications

Abstract A 6-axis robotic arm-based 3D printing system has been developed by integrating fused deposition modeling (FDM) hardware with a UR16e robotic arm for large-scale aerospace structure manufacturing. The influence of process parameters on the structural properties of fabricated structures was studied. First, small rectangular strip coupons with a unidirectional printing path along the length direction were fabricated and tested. The effects of extruder nozzle temperature, extruder travel speed, and material feed rate on strength, stiffness, and apparent density were investigated. The process-property-performance relationship for the small plate model was evaluated experimentally by varying the extruder travel speed (20–125 mm/s), material feed rate (8–13.3 RPM), and nozzle temperature (200–250°C) with a unidirectional raster orientation. The results showed that both the mass and the ultimate strength increase linearly with the material feed rate and decrease with the extruder travel speed. The nozzle temperature has little impact on the mass of the manufactured model, but it significantly influences the ultimate strength. The material properties obtained from the coupon tests and the printing path directions were both studied to investigate the load-carrying capacity of airplane wing models. To complement the experiments and parametric studies, finite element simulations were conducted in Abaqus/Explicit to study the load-carrying capacity of a cantilever plate manufactured under different raster orientations and process conditions. Four different printing path directions were considered: [0/90], [15/−75], [30/−60], and [45/−45]. From the numerical parametric studies, it was found that the optimal process parameters for each raster case were the same for achieving the largest maximum bending load: a nozzle temperature of 230°C, a feed rate of 15 RPM, and a travel speed of 50 mm/s. Among all raster orientations, the [45/−45] raster orientation exhibited the best performance for the manufactured coupons, with the highest load-carrying capacity. These findings provide quantitative guidance for selecting process conditions and raster strategies for future large-scale aerospace component design and robotic additive manufacturing.