The dimensional accuracy of plastic parts made by the fused filament fabrication

Abstract

Fused filament fabrication (FFF) process has gained considerable public interest in the last years and due to its numerous advantages, a study that identifies and explains the influence of used plastic materials on the accuracy of the parts achieved by FFF could be considered as necessary. The present study contains a brief introduction in the additive manufacturing basic notions, technologies, and equipments. In a similarly manner the 3D scanning process is also synthetically presented. The main focus is on studying the accuracy of test parts obtained in laboratory conditions using the most used 5 polymer materials (PLA, ABS, PP, PA and PET). The experiments were conducted using software and equipment dedicated to 3D printing for FFF-technology and optical scanning. Results sustained by graphs, tables and images showed that the ABS type material provided the best results concerning the linear dimensional accuracy along the X and Y axes. For the circular and linear dimensions accuracy along the Z-axis, the lowest deviations in comparison with the nominal dimensions were found in the case of the test part made of PLA. The experiments also proved that the materials that had a higher proportion of the studied points included in the tolerance zone were the PLA and the PET.