Investigation of the Process Parameters and Geometry Dependent Shrinkage Behavior of Raster Lines in the Fused Deposition Modeling Process

Abstract

Additive Manufacturing processes are able to generate components from raw material (filament, powder etc.) without the need of tools or conventional machining. One of the most common Additive Manufacturing processes is the Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM). Here, a thermoplastic polymer filament is fed into a heated nozzle where the filament is plasticized. The plasticized material is then deposited, layer-by-layer onto the building platform or the already existing component structure in a defined way. Thermoplastic polymers show a material specific shrinkage induced by the cooling process. The recurring heat input by depositing adjacent strands results in a complex cooling situation which contributes to the non-uniform shrinkage of the component. In the investigations, first, a Design of Experiments (DoE) is carried out to determine the influence of selected process parameters on the shrinkage behavior of the raster lines. Following, the geometrical deviations of simple geometries under consideration of different process parameters are determined and analyzed.