October 14, 2020, Filed Under: Research Test BedsVolumetric Powder Bed Fusion Radio frequency additive manufacturing (RFAM) is a volumetric approach to polymer powder bed fusion. RFAM parts are created by selectively doping a polymer powder bed with an electrically conductive material and radiating the bed with radio frequency (RF) radiation. Most polymers are intrinsically non-conducting, and so the radiation energy is concentrated to the doped regions of the powder bed. The dopant is deposited at room temperature, and the radiation is applied to the entire powder bed after defining the part geometry. Unlike selective laser sintering where melt and re-solidification at each layer contributes to long processing times, RFAM has the potential to offer significant improvements in build speeds by fusing the entire part in a single stage. The parts shown below were produced from a prototype RFAM system using nylon 12 powder as the polymer and graphite powder as the dopant. Faculty Members Carolyn SeepersadJoseph BeamanJohn Pearce Graduate Student Researcher Jared Allison
