Research Projects

The proposed project aims to develop an Induction Melted Metal Additive Manufacturing Machine (IMMAMM) for 3-D printing metal filament at an affordable cost and better accuracy, strengthening the Indian manufacturing sector. It also aims to create a miniature induction melter furnace with temperature control, enabling MSME clusters involved in jewelry making/casting. This new development avoids the use of costly fiber lasers used in commercially available additive manufacturing machines. The induction melter will be tailored to fit an extrusion nozzle for extruding metal filaments and fitted over a fused deposition modeling (FDM) system for 3-D printing of metal wire filament. Simulation and analysis studies will be conducted to fine-tune the system, resulting in accurate, fast, reliable, and cost-effective metal additive manufacturing features. The production cost of the metal additive manufacturing system is expected to be less than Rs 10 lacs. In-house development of graphical user interface and motion controllers is planned to further reduce equipment costs. Comprehensive post-development characterization studies will evaluate the performance of the developed machine compared to commercially available machines. A suitable operating parameter window will be developed for different metal printing. The project will be executed in three phases: Phase I, Phase II, and Phase III. Phase I includes the development of the miniature induction melter and NIT Calicut, while Phase II will involve assembly and testing of the developed technologies, followed by commercialization in Phase III.