Effects of Cutting Angle on Kerf width and Edge Shape in the Hotwire Cutting of EPS Foam for the Case of Single-Sloped Cutting for VLM-s Process

The dimensional accuracy and global roughness between successive layers of VLM-s, which is a new rapid prototyping process using hotwire cutter and EPS foam, depend significantly on the operating parameters of hotwire cutter. In the present study, the effect of cutting angle on the kerf width and edge shape in hotwire cutting of EPS foam for the case of single-sloped cutting with one cutting angle was investigated. Through single-sloped cutting tests, the modified relationship between kerf width and effective heat input, considering the effect of the cutting angle, and the relationship between the melted area and the cutting angle were obtained. In order to investigate the effect of cutting angles on the thermal field in EPS foam, transient heat transfer analyses using single-sloped volumetric heat flux model and locally-conformed mesh were performed. Through the comparison between experimental and numerical results, it was shown that the proposed analysis model is needed to estimate the three-dimensional temperature distribution of the EPS foam for the case of single-sloped hotwire cutting.

VLM-s 공정을 위한 EPS 폼의 단순 경사 열선 절단시 절단 경사각이 절단폭과 모서리 형상에 미치는 영향