Interactive design for additive manufacturing: a creative case of synchronous belt drive

As a digital and direct manufacturing technology, additive manufacturing (AM) presents a powerful and unrestrained revolution for creative design. However the breakthrough in manufacturing technology is yet to be followed by a breakthrough in design. Firstly, the state-of-the-art overview of the existing design methods for AM is presented. Furthermore, as part of a fully 3D printed robot we envisioned, this work mainly put forward a novel synchronous belt drive as an illuminating case with the potential and constraints of AM. After capturing the flexibility based on shape innovation, a new type of continuous trapezoidal tooth belt transmission without matrix was designed. Next, using the nonlinear finite elements method, the effect laws of belt’s parameters such as tooth height, tooth width, wedge angle and belt thickness were studied on the carrying capacity of belt transmission with pre-tensioning. Moreover, a new type of synchronous belt and timing pulleys were made via the 3D printing process of fused deposition modeling with the flexible polylactic acid (PLA) material. Lastly, a driving test was carried out and the experimental results showed that the presented 3D printed trapezoidal tooth belt transmission was stable, and could meet the requirements of low speed, small power transmission, especially apt to digital design and customization. This work completely demonstrates the intrinsic nature of digital design, interactive design and custom design from/with/for AM, as well as the ever-expanding room for innovation.

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