Design and developement of an additive manufacturing (AM) system based on electrophotographic printing

Abstract

With the advancement of technology, productivity has increased significantly over the last few decades in the manufacturing sector. Through the use of computer aided design (CAD) software and rapid prototyping (RP) systems, it has reduced product time-to-market and also helped to reduce cost of development. RP systems are amongst the latest technologies to have significantly developed over the past two decades. However, with various RP systems available in the market, they still have their shortcomings. Hence, this particular field of study has its potential. This report serve to give an overview of the available systems in the market and specifically, a novel method of RP known as Additive Manufacturing by Electrophotographic Printing (AMEP) will be described. The concept of using the current technology of electrophotographic printing to create three dimensional parts was explored and the concept tested out.