Mathematical approach for the geometrical deformation of fused deposition modelling build parts

Abstract

In the era of current fast moving society, we need to move rapidly with all our attributes like planning, designing, digital manufacturing and marketing etc, to match the growth, Hence the rapid prototyping (RP) is introduced. Among all RP processes, the fused deposition modelling (FDM) is very much significant due to its advancement in printing mechanism. In FDM, 3D complex geometries are printed by adding or depositing material in a layer by layer manner with less human interventions. Since FDM is a parametric dependent process, even a slight modification in process parameters causes large influence over the mechanical characteristics of the built parts. In recent years, various experimental approaches are made to check the effect of process parameters on the performance of FDM built parts. In this research work, effects of following process parameters such as layer thickness, raster width, air gap and part orientation on part deformation are investigated using mathematical approach to check the dependency level. Mathematical models are generated for prediction purpose. This study mainly focuses on the performance measures of warpage deformation, and geometrical accuracy of the FDM build parts. To generate maximum data from less number of experimental run order, a design of experiment (DOE) approach i.e response surface methodology (RSM) technique is adopted. One nature inspired metaheuristic algorithms namely firefly algorithm is adopted to get some optimum parameter settings for the improvement of performance measures.