Quality of Parts Processed by Fused Deposition

FDMTM (fused deposition modeling) is a SFF technique for the fabrication of polymer parts. Research is being conducted on the fabrication of ceramic parts by fused deposition. In this study polymer and ceramic parts were made using a commercially available FDMTM system, 3D Modeler, and the Quickslice™ software. These parts were evaluated for processing defects. Defects originate from the fused deposition process, from material characteristics, or a combination thereof. Process defects, which are present in all polymer parts, are due to current hardware, software and build strategy limitations. These same defects are seen in ceramic parts fabricated by fused deposition of ceramics (FDC). Another set of defects in ceramic parts is due to materials characteristics, i.e., non-uniformities in the feed stock filaments, their mechanical and/or rheological properties. The presence of defects in polymer or ceramic parts was studied using simple build primitives (single roads) and parts in the green state. Parts were characterized for their quality using SEM and optical microscopy.