Rapid Tooling, Design and Prototyping of Thermoplastic Components using Additive Manufacturing
The Materials Research Institute (MRI) at Athlone Institute of Technology has been working in the area of additive manufacturing for almost a decade. As Ireland’s only dedicated thermoplastic polymer processing research institute, the MRI has a variety of polymer design, prototyping, engineering and processing equipment. This equipment is utilised to provide innovations in the field of additive manufacturing in a variety of ways:
- 3D printed mould inserts and extrusion dies: The MRI has been actively designing, manufacturing and testing 3D printed tooling for Injection Moulding and Extrusion. In this field we currently provide moulds for injection moulding machines, which can facilitate 3D printed inserts for moulding runs of up to 500 parts per insert. As these 3D printed inserts do not behave in the same manner to traditional tool steel, research is ongoing at the MRI into improving the thermal conductivity of these inserts.
- Compounding and creating thermoplastic composite filament for FDM printers: We have tooling for the large scale production of filament and have recently acquired a laser measurement system for ensuring the produced filament is within tolerance with regards to Roundness (ovality being an issue for the FDM process) and Diameter. The MRI currently has several research projects in this area which is continually expanding.
- The MRI under its Centre for Industrial Services and Design offers a full range of thermoplastic characterisation techniques including: Thermal analysis; Chemical analysis; Mechanical testing; Bespoke testing; ASTM standard testing.
- The MRI also offers high precision rapid prototyping using a 3D Systems Viper which uses the SLA process. 3D System Viper’s main strengths over other 3D printers include its accuracy, surface quality and high resolution. It has been utilised to produce a range of customised prototypes which were designed in-house and have led to new product launches for our client companies. Examples include: Sedana Medical’s AnaConDa anaesthetic delivery system; Offshore Handling Systems’ hand tools for the oil and gas industry and Magiflo’s gutter system.

AIT, in partnership with industry and regional public bodies and in line with the Midlands Action Plan for Jobs, is progressing development of the Midlands Manufacturing Technologies Campus. The MMTC – with a focus on Advanced/Discrete/Additive Manufacturing technologies, Industrial/ Product Design and ‘Smart Factories’ – will provide a dynamic industry-focused R&D environment with co-location of industry and academic researchers, industry training, industry access to specialised equipment and facilities, and regional outreach.
Contacts:
Dr Sean Lyons,
Manager, APT and CISD,
Athlone IT,
Tel: 00353 90 6468284
Email: slyons@ait.ie
Equipment and capabilities:
Fused Deposition Modelling
Makerbot replicator 2x FDM printer
Orion delta FDM printer
Cubex FDM printer
Filament Production
Full production scale 3D printing filament manufacturing line (up to 20kg per hour) capable of producing filament of 1.7, 2, 3 and 4mm diameter, equipped with laser diameter measurement system and High Speed Double-position Automatic Winding.
Twin screw compounders with capacities of 50g to 25 kg per hour for the addition of additives to polymers prior to filament production.
Stereolithography (SLA)
Our primary prototyping machine is a 3D Systems Viper which uses the SLA process. The Viper has a resolution of up to 0.075mm. Its maximum build envelope is 250mm X 250mm x 250mm. 3D System Vipers main strengths over other 3d printers is its accuracy, surface quality and high resolution.
Tooling
Insert tooling for 3d printed insert moulds which can be used on AIT’s existing 60 tonne horizontal injection moulding machines, 22 tonne vertical injection moulding machine and micromoulder in addition to AITs twin extrusion blow moulding machine and pilot and plant scale thermoformers.
Design
Commercial licence for design software is PTC Creo 3.0. Main features:
3D CAD modelling (solid/surface/assembly)
Freestyle
Sheet Metal
Simulation (structural/thermal)
Mechanism Design
Assembly Performance
Rendering
Flexible modelling
Educational licences for a variety of software (available for post graduate training) for AutoCAD, Solidworks, ANSYS Workbench and Moldflow.