Investigation of an electrophotography based rapid prototyping technology

A method for rapid prototyping based on electrophotographic powder deposition was investigated to study its potentials and to identify design and implementation challenges. This technique is referred to here as the electrophotographic rapid prototyping (ERP). In this technique, powder is printed layer-by-layer in the shape of the cross-sections of the part using electrophotography a very widely used non-impact printing method. Each layer of powder is consolidated by fusing before the next layer of powder is printed. A fully automated test bed was constructed that consists of a printing system, fusing/heating plate, build platform that has two-degrees of freedom as well as software that drives the system.