| Summary: | Consumer additive manufacturing (3D printing) has rapidly grown over the last decade. While the technology for the most common type, Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF), has systematically improved and sales have increased, fundamentally, the capabilities of the machines have remained the same. FFF printers are still limited to depositing layers onto a flat build plate. This makes it difficult to combine consumer AM with other objects. While consumer AM promises to allow us to customize our world, the reality has fallen short.
The ability to directly modify existing objects presents numerous possibilities to the consumer: personalization, adding functionality, improving functionality, repair, and novel multi-material manufacturing processes. Indeed, similar goals for industrial manufacturing drove the research and development of technologies like direct write and directed energy deposition which can deposit layers onto uneven surfaces.
Replicating these capabilities on consumer 3-axis FFF machines is difficult mainly due to issues with reliability, repeatability, and quality. This thesis proposes, demonstrates, and tests a method for scanning and printing dimensionally-accurate (unwarped) digital forms onto physical objects using a modified consumer-grade 3D printer. It then provides an analysis of the machine design considerations and critical process parameters. === Master of Science
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