Gaining a better understanding of the extrusion process in fused filament fabrication 3D printing: a review

Bahaa Shaqour,Bart Verleije,Adel Juaidi,Waleed Abuzaina,Paul Cos,Mohammad Abuabiah,Salameh Abdel-Fattah,Mohammad Qarout,Ramez Abdallah

doi:10.1007/s00170-021-06918-6

Abstract

Additive manufacturing is a promising tool that has proved its value in various applications. Among its technologies, the fused filament fabrication 3D printing technique stands out with its potential to serve a wide variety of applications, ranging from simple educational purposes to industrial and medical applications. However, as many materials and composites can be utilized for this technique, the processability of these materials can be a limiting factor for producing products with the required quality and properties. Over the past few years, many researchers have attempted to better understand the melt extrusion process during 3D printing. Moreover, other research groups have focused on optimizing the process by adjusting the process parameters. These attempts were conducted using different methods, including proposing analytical models, establishing numerical models, or experimental techniques. This review highlights the most relevant work from recent years on fused filament fabrication 3D printing and discusses the future perspectives of this 3D printing technology.

Highlights

Over the past few years, additive manufacturing (AM) technologies have developed rapidly
This review provides an overview of various studies that aimed to improve our understanding of the process of the Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) 3D printing method, by proposing models that can predict the printing behavior of a material based upon its properties, such as thermal and rheological
The results indicate that the nozzle temperatures, larger fiber width, faster print speeds, and higher platform can produce greater bond strengths, and this is because each of these parameters allow for more polymer chain diffusion across the bond interface

Summary

Introduction

Over the past few years, additive manufacturing (AM) technologies have developed rapidly. This has evolved at doubledigit annual levels and has been used for research purposes and in various important sectors such as engineering, science, quick prototyping, medicine, and industry [11] For this technique, objects are produced by melting a thermoplastic polymer, to extrude it through a nozzle, and depositing the melted material layer-by-layer onto a build plate and the previously printed layers to create a replica of the digital model. The robustness of FDMTM and the cost-competitive design were the key reasons for its tremendous success in the industry [11] This technology was known by the term Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF). The future aspects of this technology and the key topics that will further guide the development of this 3D printing technology will be discussed

The heart of the FFF 3D printer

Gaining a better understanding of the extrusion process in the FFF 3D printer

Previous work discussing the extrusion process inside the extruder

Findings

Conclusions and future perspective