THREAD ROLLING REPAIR METHOD FOR 3D PRINTED BOLTS

Within this paper, a new method for the quality refinement of external metric standard threads on 3Dprinted bolts is presented. The repair method is based on the application of thread rolling technology, which is applied in terms of cold forming after the regular printing has been finished. The explorative study proves, that the investigated technology has a good potential to solve known precision issues in FDM 3D printing regarding the required accuracy for function fulfilling standardized threads. The application of thread rolling can be done manually and with minimal tool effort, which makes the technology particularly attractive for low cost applications.