Hybrid Deposition Manufacturing: Design Strategies for Multimaterial Mechanisms Via Three-Dimensional Printing and Material Deposition

This paper describes a novel fabrication technique called hybrid deposition manufacturing (HDM), which combines additive manufacturing (AM) processes such as fused deposition manufacturing (FDM) with material deposition and embedded components to produce multimaterial parts and systems for robotics, mechatronics, and articulated mechanism applications. AM techniques are used to print both permanent components and sacrificial molds for deposited resins and inserted parts. Design strategies and practical techniques for developing these structures and molds are described, taking into account considerations such as printer resolution, build direction, and printed material strength. The strengths of interfaces between printed and deposited materials commonly used in the authors' implementation of the process are measured to characterize the robustness of the resulting parts. The process is compared to previously documented layered manufacturing methodologies, and the authors present examples of systems produced with the process, including robot fingers, a multimaterial airless tire, and an articulated camera probe. This effort works toward simplifying fabrication and assembly complexity over comparable techniques, leveraging the benefits of AM, and expanding the range of design options for robotic mechanisms.