Adaptable Bed for Curved-Layered Fused Deposition Modeling of Nonplanar Structures: A Proof of Concept

Curved-layered fused deposition modeling demands a curved mandrel for each of the designs to fabricate. This results in more fabrication time and material used. To overcome this, an adaptable pin-base mandrel is presented. The fabrication of curved structures with such mandrel uses the extruder as a pushing tool, pushing each of the pins to the depths required for each surface. After the base surface is formed, the conventional process of curved fused deposition modeling (FDM) is used. Several lattice shell structures composed of nonplanar layers were fabricated on FDM mandrels and the adaptable pin-bed proposed here. The comparison of the manufacturing results showed that the adaptable base allows the successful fabrication of the samples. The solution exposed here represents a proof of concept to validate the idea. The adaptable base presented in this study is unique and it brings advantages to the fabrication of curved-layered structures.