Modeling of Bond Formation Between Polymer Filaments in the Fused Deposition Modeling Process

✍ Scribed by Céline Bellehumeur; Longmei Li; Qian Sun; Peihua Gu

• Publisher: Society of Manufacturing Engineers
• Year: 2004
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 271 KB
• Volume: 6
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1526-6125
• DOI: 10.1016/s1526-6125(04)70071-7

✦ Synopsis

The bonding quality among polymer filaments in the fused deposition modeling (FDM) process determines the integrity and mechanical properties of resultant prototypes. This paper investigates the bond formation among extruded acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) filaments in the FDM process. Thermal analysis of the FDM process resulted in an estimation of the cooling profile of the extruded filaments. Sintering experiments were carried out to evaluate the dynamics of bond formation between polymer filaments. Quantitative predictions of the degree of bonding achieved during the filament deposition process were made. The model was used to estimate the effects of different manufacturing parameters in the FDM process. Results suggest that better control of the cooling conditions may have strong repercussions on the mechanical properties of the final part fabricated using the FDM process.