ABSTRACT
Additive manufacturing (AM) processes are characterized by a high degree of flexibility regarding the manufacture of complex geometries due to the tool-free layerwise build-up principle. A well-established AM method is Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM), in which the part is produced by melting thermoplastic material in an extrusion process. However, fully automated operation of FDM is not possible due to the usually manual removal of finished parts, which reduces the overall productivity of the process. To compensate for this disadvantage, the development and implementation of a system for automated part removal for FDM is presented in this paper. The system enables the removal of finished parts from the building platform and thus the start of new build-up processes without the need for human interaction or the removal of the entire building platform as described in existing approaches. By applying this system, the productivity of FDM could be increased significantly while also reducing the need for human presence in the context of COVID-19. © 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.