Fused Deposition Modeling System Research Articles

Embedded components design strategy framework for fused deposition modeling system

This paper proposed a framework for 3D printing of embedded objects specifically for the Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) system. The main problem revolves around the difficulty of the additive manufacturing process to fully manufacture a product that can be used immediately after the printing process, thus creating the need for embedded component design to be utilized in the process. The framework was utilized to reduce components and assemblies to improve product design. To ensure environmental sustainability, the framework emphasizes materials used to make recyclable items. Design Process Flow, Design Knowledge, Key Enabling Technologies, and Design Application were used to create a four-layered design framework to tackle embedded product design challenges. The framework’s robustness and effectiveness were compared using three case studies: electric shaver, remote control and nintendo switch. The framework proposed a blade-interchangeable product for the electric shaver. In the second case study (remote control) the cover’s flexibility with similar sizes makes it reusable. In the third case study (nintendo switch), every part is interchangeable with numerous styles and designs, allowing the user to autonomously change to the desired pattern without external support. With its various features, the framework shows potential in reducing development time, cost, and resources to aid the embedded component design strategy and printing for the FDM process.

Enhancing shear strength in 3D printed single lap composite joints: A multi‐faceted exploration of GNP integration, print orientation, utilizing artificial neural networks, and dynamic analysis

AbstractThe state‐of‐the‐art manufacturing process known as additive manufacturing (AM) employs components that may be processed by AM, including ceramics, polymeric materials, metallic substances, titanium, metallic substances, and composites, to produce parts with intricate designs and exact properties. Fused deposition modeling (FDM) is a rapidly growing 3D printing technique. However, most FDM systems only support polylactic acid (PLA) or acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) as a printing medium. The impact of print orientations and graphene nanoparticles upon the tensile and shear properties of PLA single‐lap joint samples created by FDM has been investigated in this work. According to experimentation, the 0° orientation has the highest load‐bearing capacity and shear strength compared to 45° and 90°. Also, addition of GNP to epoxy adhesive improved greatly, with 0.25 to 1.00 weight percentages of 20.94, 12.34, 38.98, and 31.11%, respectively. FESEM has been used to analyze the failure criteria. The free vibrational analysis confirmed that the 3DS6 sample had the highest natural frequency (598.7 Hz) compared to all other samples. The artificial neural network (ANN) approach accurately predicted the failure load. The overall =0.8471 achieved is below the permissible margin of error, indicating that both the outcomes are reliable and in satisfactory agreement.

Utilizing ultrafast lasers for postprocessing to improve mechanical properties of 3D-printed parts

Recent advances in additive manufacturing technologies have already led to the wide-scale adoption of 3D-printed parts in the aerospace, medical, automotive, tooling, and electronics industries. The expansion in choice of materials that can be processed, in particular, using fused deposition modeling (FDM), selective laser sintering/melting, and stereolithography, and the steady advancements in dimensional accuracy control, have extended the range of applications beyond rapid prototyping. However, additive manufacturing still has considerable limitations compared to traditional and subtractive manufacturing processes. This work addresses limitations associated with the as-deposited surface roughness of 3D-printed parts. The effects of roughness-induced stress concentrations on the mechanical strength were studied, and ultrafast laser postprocessing was utilized to reduce the surface roughness of 3D-printed parts. The samples were manufactured using a commercial desktop FDM system and standard ASTM flat dogbone geometries. The samples were then postprocessed with a high-repetition-rate ultrafast Yb-fiber laser using a multi-layer scan approach. This novel postprocessing method enables high-efficiency material removal without inducing excessive thermal residual stresses into the material and, therefore, is suitable for postprocessing thermally sensitive materials, such as PLA and other polymers as well as parts with engineered porosity. In this work, we vary laser process parameters, such as average power and number of laser-processed layers, to achieve various levels of surface roughness. Values of tensile strength of the specimens were compared between 3D-printed samples featuring initial roughness and laser postprocessed samples with different values of surface roughness. The results indicate that the laser-processed samples exhibit an almost 10% increase in tensile strength depending on specific laser processing parameters.

Estimation of fused deposition modelling failure from open community data with natural language process

Fused deposition modelling is a widely used additive manufacturing technology, due to its affordability and accessibility. Products printed using fused deposition modelling process are prone to failures, resulting in deteriorated quality, time, and cost losses. Research in this area related to troubleshooting fused deposition modelling failures rather than to analyse failure information. Due to the difficulty in detecting and predicting such failures before they occur, the collection of statistics and estimation of its rates are extremely valuable. Since having a knowledge of the most common errors, as well as approximating the frequency of their occurrence on various printers, can allow users to take preventative measures to avoid several numbers of them. Solving this task involves the analysis of forums' messages with a description of failed printing attempts and developing a predictive model based on these messages. In this context, the paper covers the natural language processing techniques, to deal with messages written in natural language and prepare them to be used as predictor variables in training the model, as well as various text classifiers used in supervised machine learning to build predictive models. By applying machine learning and natural language process to real data, was developed a model, which is capable of predicting failure categories associated with three-dimensional printing by means of fused deposition modelling systems.

Design and development of a rapid prototyping system combining traditional fused deposition modeling and reconfigurable pins platform

Additive manufacturing, also commonly referred to as 3D printing, has enabled the rapid production of parts possessing complex geometry. Despite Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) being the most popular process, it still suffers from certain limitations, such as production time and material required to build the material support structure for overhang parts. This results in increased total build time and material requirement. This article aims to eliminate these limitations by using a proposed hybrid reconfigurable pin FDM system. A hybrid system is proposed to eliminate the problem of support build time and material requirements. The proposed hybrid FDM is the combination of traditional FDM with a reconfigurable pins platform. The proposed hybrid system has been implemented for printing an overhang test part. The result analysis also reveals that the proposed hybrid system is an effective way of producing overhang parts without material support structures. A real-life case example is considered for validation of the proposed reconfigurable pins platform.

Scientometric analysis and critical review of fused deposition modeling in the plastic recycling context

Plastics have emerged as one of the essential materials present on the planet. However, its accumulation can negatively impact the environment if not disposed of properly. To counter this issue, the ‘Circular Economy’ is one such economic growth model with one of the objectives of using plastic resources efficiently. Several plastic recycling methodologies have been derived, out of which Distributed Recycling via Additive Manufacturing (DRAM) is one of them. The main objective of this study aims to form an optimal link between two different areas of knowledge domains: plastic recycling and additive manufacturing. A scientometric analysis has been conducted to measure the former knowledge domains mentioned to accomplish this goal. From the results, the Scopus database yields 1452 relevant publications between 2013 and 2021. The results suggest that Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) is the most used AM technology on recycled plastics. Hence, the review targets the FDM process in the context of plastic recycling. A critical review has been done, which shows the material characterization of recycled polymers in AM. This is followed by an in-depth analysis of the FDM technology, including discussions on influencing parameters of this process. The following results present the multi-material mixing of plastics and Direct FDM systems and their relevance in plastic recycling. These two areas create opportunities to increase the variety of feedstock materials that can be 3D printed. Lastly, the authors have proposed some future directions based on the literature review done in this work. • Fused deposition modeling process in context to plastic recycling is discussed. • Scientometric analysis was done to get a knowledge domain of relevant studies through the scientific-mapping approach. • Potential thermoplastics such as PLA, ABS, HIPS, PC, etc. have suitable material characteristics required for recycling. • Infill density and raster angle significantly affect tensile strength. • Direct FDM systems increase the variety of feedstock materials available for the FDM process.

Design of a hybrid high-throughput fused deposition modeling system for circular economy applications

<abstract> <p>In recent years, recycling of plastics has opened several doors of advancements in the field of additive manufacturing (AM). The process of fused deposition modelling (FDM) has already been utilized for reprocessing waste plastics into filaments and finally printing them into useful products. Yet another concept of extrusion additive manufacturing (EAM) is gaining lots of attention. In this work, a screw assisted system based on EAM is designed and installed alongside a pre-existing FDM system. This system is referred to as the direct FDM (DFDM) system throughout this work. The DFDM system used operates with a 1.75 mm nozzle and has the ability of giving a high throughput. The focus of this work is to use this hybrid system (combination of FDM and DFDM systems) to print both virgin as well as recycled plastics. The scope of this work is to use one technology (either FDM or DFDM) at a time and to use both simultaneously for multi-material printing in future. After several trials of printing and setting up some printing parameters, the proposed system has been able to print with virgin as well as recycled PLA.</p> </abstract>

Development of a Fused Deposition Modeling System to Build Form-Fit Joints Using an Industrial Robot

Development of a Fused Deposition Modeling System to Build Form-Fit Joints Using an Industrial Robot

Effect of processing parameters on mechanical properties of FDM filament prepared on single screw extruder

Fused deposition modeling (FDM) using Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) polymer as filament is gaining a distinct advantage in manufacturing industries because of its ability to manufacture parts with complex shapes without any tooling requirement and human interface. Present research work aims to develop an alternative FDM filament using nylon 6, Al powder, and Al2O3 powder, which is to be used in existing original equipment manufacturer (OEM) FDM system without changing hardware/software of the system. Taguchi L9, orthogonal array approach, has been used to study the effect of input process parameters, i.e., proportions of filament ingredient, barrel temperature, and die temperature on mechanical properties of filament developed. Proportions of filament ingredients are found to have a significant effect on tensile strength, Young's modulus, and percentage elongation. The required filament has been successfully developed, having more improved properties. The resulting composite filament prepared by extrusion was found to work well with an FDM machine.

Enhancing the FDM infill pattern outcomes of mechanical behavior for as-built and annealed PETG and CFPETG composites parts

Fused deposition modeling (FDM) is the most widely used form of additive manufacturing, a component of the material extrusion, also known as fused filament manufacturing. Recently, in the automotive and aeronautical sectors where FDM is used, polyethene terephthalate glycol (PETG) and carbon fibre-strengthened polyethene terephthalate glycol (CFPETG) composites have developed outstanding material options. In the FDM system, the process parameter influences the behavior of the dimensional stability, consistency, functionality and printed specimen. The present recorded papers address the effects of a number of infill patterns such as grid, honeycomb, rectilinear, cubic on FDM-produced components made of PETG and CFPETG to measure the hardness, tensile, affect, flexural strength of the As-printed and annealing samples. Following the former mechanical properties improved by choosing the right grid pattern infill in PETG and CFPETG samples. In addition, the circulation improved the bonding of the interlayer by the post-processing annealing procedure, which was the secondary objective of this analysis in contrast with the as-printed samples. It is quite clear that the answer to this finding provides a helpful guidance for the development of usable parts by the use of CFPETG, provided the reinforcement present in the PETG.

A Framework for Adaptive Width Control of Dense Contour-Parallel Toolpaths in Fused Deposition Modeling

3D printing techniques such as Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) have enabled the fabrication of complex geometry quickly and cheaply. Objects are produced by filling (a portion of) the 2D polygons of consecutive layers with contour-parallel extrusion toolpaths. Uniform width toolpaths consisting of inward offsets from the outline polygons produce over- and underfill regions in the center of the shape, which are especially detrimental to the mechanical performance of thin parts. In order to fill shapes with arbitrary diameter densely the toolpaths require adaptive width. Existing approaches for generating toolpaths with adaptive width result in a large variation in widths, which for some hardware systems is difficult to realize accurately. In this paper we present a framework which supports multiple schemes to generate toolpaths with adaptive width, by employing a function to decide the number of beads and their widths. Furthermore, we propose a novel scheme which reduces extreme bead widths, while limiting the number of altered toolpaths. We statistically validate the effectiveness of our framework and this novel scheme on a data set of representative 3D models, and physically validate it by developing a technique, called back pressure compensation, for off-the-shelf FDM systems to effectively realize adaptive width.

Amplitude Uniformity in Ultrasonic Assisted Fused Deposition Modeling

Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) is one of the Additive Manufacturing (AM) technology. Ultrasonic-assisted FDM system has been proven to improve the mechanical properties of the printed specimens. This study aims to explore the uniformity of the amplitude of ultrasonic vibration that was used during the printing process. The uniformity of vibration affected the improvement of the mechanical properties of the 3D printed part. If there is a bad uniformity of ultrasonic vibration, it will influence and increase the variation of the tensile test result. An open-source FDM printer attached with the piezoelectric transducer in various locations of the printer platform was set up. Five different positions and numbers of piezoelectric transducer were set up in order to determine the best position and number of the piezoelectric transducer for transmitting the vibration uniformly to the printing platform. A laser scanning vibrometer was used to determine the amplitude of ultrasonic vibration that transmitted over the printing platform of an open-source FDM 3D printer. From the results, it shows that with two piezoelectric transducers at “Position 4” improved the uniformity of ultrasonic vibration as it had the lowest standard deviation. The test also revealed that the ultrasonic vibration effect uniformly on the 3D printed specimens. In addition, it also reduces the variation and provide better tensile test results of the printed specimens

Effect of process parameters on additively manufactured parts using FDM process & material selection: A review

Fused deposition modelling (FDM) is second most widely used additive manufacturing process worldwide. Performance of the FDM system is highly effected by number of parameters such as environmental factors, material properties, part orientation and supports, machining parameters and working parameters. Working parameters specifically raster angle and width, layer thickness and amount of infill highly effect the mechanical characteristics of additively printed parts. Part orientation which is directly proportional with support generation, is mandatory requirement for hanging parts but it results in poor surface finish and require more post-processing. A proper selection of material is one to the key factor of success of functional prototypes produced from FDM system. Various materials categorized as biodegradable/non- biodegradable, biocompatible, water soluble/insoluble, etc. can be processed on considered system. A various commercial and open ware software’s can be used to identify optimum value of working parameters for best results. In present work, a comprehensive review has been carried out to check the effect of working parameters on the performance of the FDM printed parts. Study also supported by the understanding of the various materials reinforced by FDM system and new possibilities are identified for future work.

Hybrid Manufacturing and Experimental Testing of Glass Fiber Enhanced Thermoplastic Composites

Additive Manufacturing (AM) is gaining enormous attention from academic and industrial sectors for product development using different materials. Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) is a popular AM method that works with thermoplastics. This process offers benefits of customisation both in terms of hardware and software in the case of desktop-based FDM systems. Enhancement of mechanical properties for the traditional thermoplastic material is a widely researched area and various materials have been added to achieve this goal. This paper focuses on the manufacture of glass fiber reinforced plastic (GFRP) composites using Hybrid Fused Deposition Modelling (HFDM). Commonly available polylactic acid or polylactide (PLA) material was inter-laced with 0.03 mm thick glass fiber sheets to manufacture GFRP products followed by tensile testing. This was done to investigate whether adding more layers increases the tensile strength of the GFRP products or not. Furthermore, the maximum number of glass fiber layers that can be added to the 4 mm thick specimen was also identified. This was done to demonstrate that there is an optimal number of glass fiber layers that can be added as after this optimal number, the tensile strength start to deteriorate. Microstructural analysis was undertaken after tensile testing followed by ultrasonic testing to assess the uniformity of the GFRP composites.

The development of a conical screw-based extrusion deposition system and its application in fused deposition modeling with thermoplastic polyurethane

Purpose This paper aims to develop an integrated and portable desktop 3D printer using direct extruding technology to expand applied material field. Different from conventional fused deposition modeling (FDM) which uses polymer filaments as feedstock, the developed system can fabricate products directly using polymer pellets. And its printing properties are also investigated. Design/methodology/approach A conical screw-based extrusion deposition (CSBED) system was developed with a large taper conical screw to plasticize and extrude fed materials. The 3D printer was developed with assistance of precision positioning and controlling system. Biocompatible thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) pellets were selected as raw materials for experiments. The influences of four processing parameters: nozzle temperature, fill vector orientation, layer thickness and infill density on the product’s internal structure and tensile properties were investigated. Findings It is concluded that the customized system has a high manufacturing accuracy with a diminutive global size and is suitable for printing soft materials such as TPU. Theoretical calculation shows the developed conical screw is more effective in plasticizing and extruding compared with conventional screw. Printed samples can achieve applicable tensile properties under harmonious parameter cooperation. Deposited materials are found to have voids among adjacent roads under unbefitting parameters. Originality/value The developed system efficiently improves material limitations compared to commercial FDM systems and exhibits great potential in medical field because soft materials such as biocompatible TPU pellets can be directly used.

Personalized 3D-printed endoprostheses for limb sparing in dogs: Modeling and in vitro testing

Osteosarcoma is the most common type of bone cancer in dogs, treatable by amputation or limb-sparing surgery. For the latter, commercially available plate – endoprosthesis assemblies require contouring, to be adapted to the patient's bone geometry, and lead to sub-optimal results. The use of additively-manufactured personalized endoprostheses and cutting guides for distal radius limb-sparing surgery in dogs presents a promising alternative.Specialized software is used for the bone structure reconstruction from the patient's CT scans and for the design of endoprostheses and cutting guides. The prostheses are manufactured from a titanium alloy using a laser powder bed fusion system, while the cutting guides are manufactured from an ABS plastic using a fused deposition modeling system. A finite element model of an instrumented limb was developed and validated using experimental testing of a cadaveric limb implanted with a personalized endoprosthesis.Personalized endoprostheses and cutting guides can reduce limb sparing surgery time by 25–50% and may reduce the risk of implant failure. The numerical model was validated using the kinematics and force-displacement diagrams of the implant-limb construct. The model indicated that a modulus of elasticity of an implant material ranging from 25 to 50 GPa would improve the stress distribution within the implant. The results of the current study will allow optimization of the design of the personal implants in both veterinary and human patients.

Direct coupling of fixed screw extruders using flexible heated hoses for FDM printing of extremely soft thermoplastic elastomers

We present a new method—fused pellets printing—to print any thermoplastic materials by converting a screw extruder into a direct source for feeding material into fused deposition modeling (FDM) style 3D printer. We achieve this by feeding thermoplastic pellets into a stand-alone single screw system that melts and pushes the material through a flexible heated hose to the print head. The material is finally deposited through the print head onto the print bed to construct the 3D object. This heated hose decouples the large mass extruder from an FDM print head which can then move with high speed and precision. The result is a very simple 3D printing tool that can take raw input pellets or even recycled thermoplastic scrap, and directly print parts without the need to produce an intermediate, high-quality filament. This technique has been successfully used for pellets of both soft and hard thermoplastics. Using pellets of styrene–ethylene–butylene–styrene, airtight pneumatic soft robotic actuators have been printed in a single process. In theory, this technique should be suitable for any thermoplastic material regardless of their flexibility, stretchability, and hardness which is not possible with currently available commercial FDM systems.

MotoMaker: a robot FDM platform for multi-plane and 3D lattice structure printing

Additive manufacturing is a process to fabricate three-dimensional (3D) objects usually by joining a material layer by layer. The layer by layer joining process simplifies the fabrication method by slicing the 3D object into stacks of 2D contours. The layers are combined in a single build direction to form the 3D object. In this research, a six degrees of freedom robot arm is integrated with a fused deposition modeling system for multi-plane and 3D lattice structure printing applications. The integration processes in developing the platform are discussed including the robot arm platform, extruder system, software architecture, toolpath generation, 3D lattice generator, and extruder calibration. Use of the system offers unique advantages over a conventional Cartesian 3D printer platform which is limited to single-plane layering for the printing of 3D objects. Test cases are performed to demonstrate the capability of the robot arm fused deposition modeling platform for multi-plane object printing and 3D lattice structure printing.

Flexibility Enhancement of Poly(lactide-co-glycolide) for Fused Deposition Modeling Technology

Poly(lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) is one of the most widely used bioplastics in bioengineering and has been actively applied to fused deposition modeling (FDM)-based 3D printing. However, the brittleness of PLGA remains a major obstacle to its application in FDM systems, because these systems can only process flexible materials. Here, we developed a new technique to enhance the flexibility of PLGA. A polymer drawing process involving bidirectional extension was applied to induce molecular alignment, which affects the flexibility of the material. Filamentous forms of PLGA with various draw ratios were prepared and their material properties were investigated in detail. The results showed that PLGA flexibility was markedly increased at the draw ratio of 3, which was identified as the brittle-to-ductile transition point. The elongation at break of the drawn PLGA at this draw ratio was approximately 14 times greater than that of the raw material. Printability tests showed that various complex 3D structures could be fabricated with the drawn PLGA using a FDM system. In addition, the drawn PLGA showed no cytotoxicity in culturing. The technique developed here shows potential for the preparation of long and flexible PLGA filaments for use in FDM technology with biological applicability.

Multi-objective optimization based on machine reliability and process-dependent product quality for FDM system

With increasing application of Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM), it is important to develop a reliability model and maintenance plan strategies for FDM machines. This paper studies the impact of machine component degradations and process parameter deviations on the FDM system reliability. The contribution of this paper is to integrate both FDM machine reliability and process-dependent product quality in a system reliability model. The machine reliability is determined by component degradations. All component failures are subject to exponential distributions with time-dependent failure rates. The process-dependent product quality is used to quantify the impact of process parameters on product quality. The Flashforge Guider fabrication machine is used as a case study. The reliability model of this machine is analyzed during its operation time. Based on the reliability model, the optimal maintenance plans using multi-objective optimization method are obtained. The minimum life cycle cost and cumulative failure probability functions are taken as optimization objectives. Comparisons among the optimal maintenance plans and the solution without preventative maintenance (PM) are investigated. The implementation of PM improves the system reliability and reduces the life cycle cost. Through the Pareto frontiers, the trade-off is obtained between life cycle cost and cumulative failure probability functions. Numerical results for the optimization of FDM system operations are provided.