Remote Lab to Illustrate the Influence of Process Parameters on Product Properties in Additive Manufacturing

Abstract

Additive manufacturing, which enables the production of highly complex components that were previously next to impossible to manufacture, has evolved from a tool for rapid prototyping to an integral part of many production lines in the metal manufacturing industry. Therefore, it is critical that today’s students, the manufacturing engineers of tomorrow, get a fundamental understanding of the process and the influence of the various process parameters on the process and the final product properties. The developed remote lab offers the students an opportunity to vary different process parameters and characterize the performance of specimens manufactured under different conditions with help of the uniaxial tensile test and to quantitatively analyze the interplay of different process parameters on the final product. From the educator’s point of view, the remote lab will allow for a higher throughput of students in the field of additive manufacturing without compromising on the machine and user safety, as well as the effectiveness of the lab.