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Fused Deposition Modeling - Insights

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International Conference on Advances in Design and Manufacturing (ICAD&M'14) 1345

Fused Deposition Modeling -

Insights
P. Chennakesava1 and Y. Shivraj Narayan2

Abstract--- Rapid-Prototyping (RP) is a group of

techniques used to quickly fabricate a scale model of a
physical part or assembly using three-dimensional Computer
Aided Design (CAD) data. There are two phases in the birth of
a product, first would be the design phase and second would
be the manufacturing phase. Both the processes involve
several steps as per design and manufacturing guidelines. In
this competitive age any time reduction in these steps will help
in profit maximization. Apart from the conventional
manufacturing processes which are used for several years
while manufacturing of a product, additive manufacturing
processes have gained momentum in the recent years. The
reason behind this is that these processes do not require
special tooling and do not remove material which is very
beneficial in the making of a component. In this review paper,
an attempt has been made to know the insights of one such
additive manufacturing process i.e., Fused Deposition
Modeling (FDM).
Figure 1: Schematic Representation of FDMProcess [17]
Keywords--- Additive Manufacturing, Fused Deposition In order to build complex shaped parts, FDM uses support
Layers, RapidPrototyping, Stereo lithography material apart from the build material which supports the
overhanging structures during the process and helps in
maintaining structural integrity of part until it is strengthened
I. INTRODUCTION
before the support material is removed by breaking or by

F
used Deposition Modeling (FDM) process comes under dissolving using appropriate solvents.
additive process. It is one among the several additive
processes like Stereo lithography (SL), Selective Laser B. Materials used in making FDM parts:
sintering (SLS) etc. Additive Manufacturing follows building Most of the existing FDM machines use thermoplastic
components by addition of material. In order to visualize the materials which are in a filament form for the extrusion and
approach used, stacking a pack of cards can be considered as
deposition purpose. Acrylonitrile Butadiene styrene (ABS)
an example
and Polylactide (PLA) thermoplastics are predominantly used
FDM, the name itself gives the idea that the parts are in the process.
formed by deposition of the fused material in layers. This RP
technique is used in modeling, prototyping and production The above mentioned materials are used in following forms:
applications. FDM was developed by S. Scott Crump in the
late 1980s and was commercialized in 1990 by Stratasys. i. Build material: This material is used to obtain actual
part.
A. Working of FDM machine:
ii. Support material: This material is used to construct
In the FDM process, a gantry-robot which is fitted with the support structures for the actual part.The support
extruder head moves in X & Y directions. The table moves in material is otherwise called as dissolvable material if
vertical Z-axis. When a layer gets deposited on the table, it it is dissolvable.
goes down according to the layer thickness and the subsequent
layers are built in the same way. Table 1: Properties of materials
S.No. Name of the Normal melting Temperature
_________________________
material point used in FDM
P. Chennakesava Sai 1, M.Tech. (Advanced Manufacturing Systems), 1 ABS 105oC 230 oC
Department of Mechanical Engineering, VNR Vignana Jyothi Institute of 2 PLA 65oC 180oC
Engineering &Technology, Hyderabad, India. Email:
chennakesavasai@gmail.com C. Steps to be carried out to build a model:
Y. Shivraj Narayan 2, Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical 1. Create a CAD model of the product.
Engineering, VNR Vignana Jyothi Institute of Engineering & Technology,
Hyderabad, India. Email: shivrajyeole@vnrvjiet.in
2. Save it in the Stereolithography(STL) file format.

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International Conference on Advances in Design and Manufacturing (ICAD&M'14) 1346

3. Load the .stl file in to the slicing software or the

interface platform between the specific machine and
the computer.
4. Upload the sliced file into the FDM machine.
5. Run the machine with required settings.
6. Detach the part from the table after completion.
Figure 4: Necking Phenomenons[6]

Figure 5: Neck Growth Evolutions at Constant Temperature

for ABS at 200˚C
7. Cusp height:It is calculated as the maximum normal
distance between facet and the deposited part
Figure 2: Printing Process Flowchart for Stratasys Machine considering the edges of the slices to be rectangular
[11].
II. VARIOUS PARAMETERS IN FDM
It is found from the literature review that the quality of
the FDM prototype produced is influenced by different
parameters. Reference [10] defines these parameters as
follows:

1. Orientation:Part build orientation or orientation

refers to the inclination of the part in the build
platform with respect to X, Y, and Z axis, where X
and Y-axis are considered parallel to build platform
and Z- axis is along the direction of part build.
2. Layer thickness:It is the thickness of layer deposited
by nozzle and depends upon the type of nozzle used.
3. Raster angle: It is a direction of raster relative to the
X-axis of the build table.
4. Part raster width (raster width): It is the width of
raster pattern used to fill interior regions of part
curves.
5. Raster to raster gap (air gap):It is the gap between
two adjacent rasters on same layer.
Figure 3: Representations of Process Parameters[10]
Figure 6: Picture Representing Cusp Heights[11]
8. Speed of deposition: It is the rate at which the nozzle
deposits the raster.
Other parameters:
1. Shell:It refers to the outermost boundary of the layer.
2. Infill: Everything that is neither shells, nor roof, nor
floor is filled with an internal lattice called infill.
III. CHARACTERISTICS CONSIDERED IN A FDM BUILT PART
Products manufactured using Fused Deposition Modeling
technology can be characterized by technical indices –
strength of certain kind (tensile, flexural strength or impact
resistance), dimensional accuracy, as well as economic
indices, such as manufacturing time and amount of support
and build material used. Many parameters mentioned above
have direct and indirect influence on these indices.
Characteristics that are predominantly considered in FDM
built parts are as follows:

6. Necking:Necking is a shape formed due to molecular A. Dimensional Accuracy.

bonding between two rasters [6]. B. Surface roughness.
C. Mechanical strength characteristics.

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International Conference on Advances in Design and Manufacturing (ICAD&M'14) 1347

A. Dimensional Accuracy: i. Layer thickness.

According to[12],dimensional accuracyis understood as ii. Stair case effect.
degree of compatibility of basic dimensions of the obtained
i. Layer thickness:
product with dimensions of the ideal product (nominal
As the thickness of the layer increases, the roughness
dimensions).With respect to the parameters affecting the
increases.This is clearly illustrated in the figure 8.
dimensional accuracy,partorientation plays a major in
obtaining the dimensional accuracy of the part.

Orientation of the model in the working chamber during

layered manufacturing process can be described as an angular
difference between plane determining direction of the object
division into layers and selected, basic plane of the
manufactured object. Orientation can be defined by three
angular values. One of them – rotation in the Z axis (around
vertical direction) has no importance from the viewpoint of
Figure8: Effect of Layer Thickness on Surface Finish [8]
technical and economical indexes, as it has no influence on
how the object is divided into layers.
ii. Stair case effect:
It has been understood from the experiments conducted by According to[14],in any RP process, the layer by layer
[12] that the coefficient of accuracy increases with lower building process introduces an error on the amount of material
orientations therefore orientation the part should be as low as used compared to the volume specified by the computer aided
possible in order to get accurate as well as strengthened parts. design model. This error causes the staircase effect on the
surface and adversely affects the dimensional accuracy as well
as surface finish for different part build orientations. Inclined
and curved surfaces show staircase effects more
predominantly than other surfaces.

The orientation, at which the part is built, has a significant

effect on the quality of various surfaces of the part. The
orientation of part also affects other factors such as the build
time, the complexity of support structure, shrinkage, curling,
trapped volume, and material flow in many rapid prototyping
processes. There is no way the staircase effect can be
completely eliminated. However, the effect can be reduced by
Figure 7: Representation of Orientation in FDM[12] decreasing the layer thickness and by orienting the part such
Orientation of the part not only affects the accuracy of the that the effect of overall staircase error is greatly reduced. It is
part it also play role in the usage of the build material, build because of the staircase the edges of the slices may be
time. (Discussed in strength characteristics). completely out of the CAD model or they may be completely
inside the CAD model as shown in figure 9.
B. Surface roughness:
As it is considered as one of the important characteristic
in any functional part manufactures by conventional and un-
conventional processes it does the same with the FDM built
parts.Surface Roughness is considered as one major
challenging quest for the researches today and many of them
are working on the ways to produce products with less surface
roughness which will be a great addition to the functional
prototypes.

The increase in the surface roughness of the prototypes is Figure 9: Containment Issue in Layered Manufacturing [8]
due to the inherent disadvantages in the layered manufacturing
processes.They can be grouped as follows:

ISBN 978-93-84743-12-3 © 2014 Bonfring

International Conference on Advances in Design and Manufacturing (ICAD&M'14)
 Adaptive Slicing:-
It is the technique followed to decrease the surface
roughness of the prototypes produced in FDM. In this process
the slicing software doesn’t slice the CAD model into equal
layers instead slices the CAD model according to the profile
where in the minimum surface roughness can be achieved.The
software is equipped with special algorithms that can identify
the complex profiles and change the slicing pattern in order to
achieve the required surface roughness.
 Chemical Processing:-
Reference [7] manufactured the specimens considering
the parameters; tip size, raster width and slice height by
studying previous literatures and also implemented a chemical
cleaning process to improve the surface finish of the build
parts. Approach workflow was used as shown in figure 10.
Figure 10: Approach Workflow[7]
In the second phase of the experimentation, the specimens
were subjected to a chemical finishing process. The chemical
bath was chosen according to the following considerations:
ABS is a polymer with a low reticulation degree, including
nitrile functionality having weak interaction with polar
solvents such as dimethyl ketone (acetone), ester and chloride
solvents. Dimethyl ketone was chosen due to its low cost, very
low toxicity and to his very high diffusion. Because the
process resulted to be difficultly controlled using pure acetone,
the bath was added with water due to its very high mix ability
with acetone. An accurate trial and error procedure was
carried out to detect suitable values of the independent
variables: concentration and immersion time. The process
consisted of immersion in a volume of 90% dimethyl ketone
and 10% water for 300s. All the specimens’ sizes were
measured before and after the chemical finishing, in order
evaluate any variations. The roughness of specimens was then
measured again using the conoscopic sensor in order to
evaluate any differences in terms of improvement of the
roughness. The three specimens with the best and with the
worst surface finish (totally six) before the chemical process
were assessed.
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1348
C.Mechanical Strength Characteristics:-[10] [9] [6] [4]
Strength of the parts made in FDM process depends on
the bonding between the individual raster’s. The strength
characteristics are directly proportional to the bonding of the
filaments and the type of the fill used to fill the space of the
part which is related to the density of the part. The type of
infill used by different manufactures may differ in their
shapes. Density of the infill is also a major factor in
determining the strength of the built part.
Reference [15] envelope temperature and variations in the
convective conditions within the building part will lead to the
distortion of the part. This is mainly due to accumulation of
residual stresses at the bottom of the surface of the part during
fabrication.
As per [16], mechanical properties of the built part are
also dependent on the orientation of the part.
Bonding between two neighbouring fibers: The bonding
between neighboring fibers takes place via thermally driven
diffusion welding. The formation of bonds between polymer
filaments in the FDM process can be described as shown in
figure4.The cross sections of filaments are idealized as circles
in the figure. The first step of the process is the establishment
of interfacial molecular contact by wetting. The molecules
then undergo motions toward preferred configurations to
achieve the adsorptive equilibrium. Molecules diffuse across
the interface, forming an interfacial zone, and/or react to form
primary chemical bonds across the interface. The
randomization can be reached only after extensive inter
diffusion of chain segments under critical conditions. The
dimensionless sintering neck growth is calculated as the ratio
of neck radius y with the filament’s radius a, as indicated in
figure 4.
Quantitative predictions of the degree of bonding
achieved during the filament deposition process were made
based on experimental data used in conjunction with heat
transfer and sintering models.
When material is extruded from nozzle of the FDM
machine, it cools from glass transition temperature to chamber
temperature resulting in inner stresses to be developed because
of uneven deposition speed causing interlayer and intra-layer
deformation of the parts appearing in the form of cracking, de-
lamination or even part fabrication failure. Such phenomenon
affects the part strength and size of build parts. It has been
observed that deformation is more in bottom layers than upper
layers. Deformations increase as stacking section length
becomes more. Therefore, extruded fiber length must be small.
International Conference on Advances in Design and Manufacturing (ICAD&M'14) 1349

Reference [9] concluded that layer thickness, raster angle building time, and building cost and has proposed to
and air gap influence the elastic performance of the compliant build a knowledge base covering parameters involves
FDM ABS prototype. in various processes so as to automate the process
selection process.
Distortion effect is directly proportional to the bonding 2. Reference [2] analyzed various properties of FDM
processed parts and presented a detailed comparison
effect between the fibers [10].
of the process with respect to other processes.
3. Reference [3] conducted experimental analysis using
IV. FDM MANUFACTURERS [17] [18] [19] parameters like layer thickness, road width (raster
With the 3D printing technology gaining popularity day width) and speed of deposition so as to find their
by day, many players are jumping into the manufacturing influence on surface roughness. The layer thickness
business of 3D printing machines. The following list contains is found to be influential.
4. Reference [4] made a study of compression
the names of manufacturers involved in the manufacturing of
properties of topologically optimized FDM parts.
FDM/3D Printing machines. Authors proposed a methodology to reduce material
consumption, times and cost of production. They
1. Makerbot, USA found that raster width is relevant only for the
2. 3D Systems, USA manufacturing time. It has no influence on the
3. Fabbster, Germany) maximum compressive stress while the parameters
4. Envisiontec, Germany infill and shell width are very important aspects for
5. Aleph Objects,USA the compression properties.
6. Beijing Tier Time Technology Co.Ltd., China 5. Reference [5] evaluated a Ra and made an attempt to
7. Beijing Yinhua Laser Rapid Prototype Making and address this problem using simple material removal
Mould Technology Co. Ltd., China method namely Hot Cutter Method (HCM). Authors
suggested that further work can be carried out in
Vendors selling using open source technology: development of hybrid RP system, which will use
layer-by-layer deposition and HCM for enhancing
1. Solidoodle surface finish of FDM parts.
2. Stratasys Ltd., USA Reference [6] in their paper analyzed process
6.
3. Tinkerine Studios Ltd., Canada parameters that show effect on Raand also analyzed a
4. Ultimaking Ltd. Netherlands chemical post-processing treatment that yields a
significant improvement in Ra. Authors advised that
Apart from the above, there are several other companies further studies can be conducted using other dimethyl
which provide assembled kits and indigenously manufactured ketone solvents such as ethylene and using designed
ones. The cost of the machines depends upon the quality of the experiments to optimize the process in terms of the
product that is being obtained with respect to above stated solution concentration and process time.
input parameters and the characteristics of the parts. 7. Reference [8] studied different works on part
deposition orientation and it’s relating parameters. In
order to develop optimal part deposition orientation
V. ADVANTAGES
systems based on actual surface profile
1. Complex parts can be produced with good accuracy characteristics for different LM processes, authors
and with low cost when compared to conventional realized that all possible orientations must be
manufacturing process. investigated unlike few.
2. No need for special toolings. 8. Reference [10] derived a functional relationship
3. As simple as printing of copy from normal inkjet between process parameters and wear using response
printer. surface methodology and proposed an optimum
parameter setting to reduce the sliding wear. Authors
VI. DISADVANTAGES also proposed to carry out future study to compare
1. FDM is a costlier process. different RP technologies for generating parts having
2. The size of the output product is limited to a very best quality in terms of mechanical properties,
small size. dimensional accuracy, surface finish and fabrication
3. Raw material limitations. (No metal based filaments cost.
can be used due to requirement of high temperatures). 9. Reference [11] made an approach for adaptive
4. FDM is a developing process. slicing based on the realistic build edge profile using
two approaches, namely direct slicing and tessellated
VII. LITERATURE REVIEW model (STL).The methodology used can reduce the
number of slices, and hence the build time. It also
1. Reference [1] examined four dominant RP processes helped in expressing part quality in terms of standard
currently in market with respect to building Ra value which is used in design and manufacturing.
mechanism, building accuracy, surface quality, 10. Reference [12] made an experimental study to

ISBN 978-93-84743-12-3 © 2014 Bonfring

 International Conference on Advances in Design and Manufacturing (ICAD&M'14)
determine relation between dimensional accuracy and
tensile strength of FDM build parts.
11. Reference [13] made a detailed study on the principle
and steps to be followed in FDM process.
12. Reference [15] made a study on bond formation
process in FDM extruded filaments and found that
extrusion temperature has a more significant impact
on the neck growth of the bonding zone than
envelope temperature does. Authors proposed to
study the extrusion process parameters for
determining the relationships between mechanical
properties and quality of the prototypes.
VIII. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE
ENHANCEMENT
This paper presents brief insight into one of the emerging
Rapid-Prototyping technique called Fused Deposition
Modeling. It lays emphasis on the working process of the
FDM and various parameters involved in it and their effects
on physical properties like Dimensional accuracy, surface
roughness, strength of the components made through the
process. From the study it has been understood that the
parameters like orientation, layer thickness, bond formation
and the infill and temperature profile are the primary
parameters that directly affects the quality of the part. Also
some of the existing methodologies like adaptive slicing,
machining, and chemical processing are discussed for the
minimization of the problem.
It can be concluded on the basis of literature review that
there is still enough space for the research in order to improve
the surface roughness and strength of the parts by optimizing
the parameters used in the building of the part. Also there is a
scope for study and optimization of temperature profile during
the deposition so that distortion effect and the sliding wear can
be reduced with increased mechanical strength. Future work is
proposed to be carried out in optimization of overall
parameters to manufacture a part to specific level of
characteristics.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Authors would like to thank Professor P.Raja Rao for his
encouragement in the initiation of the work and also would
like to thank VNRVJIET for rendering their support in
acquisition of the resources required.
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ISBN 978-93-84743-12-3 © 2014 Bonfring
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P.Chennakesava Sai(04-09-1992)is pursuing M.Tech. in
Advanced Manufacturing Systems atVallurupalli Nageswara
Rao Vignana Jyothi Institute of Engineering & Technology
(VNR VJIET), Hyderabad. His current interest is Additive
Manufacturing
Technology.(Email:chennakesavasai@gmail.com)
Y. Shivraj Narayan (20-06-1978), M.Tech. in Advanced
Manufacturing Processes, NIT Warangal, Telangana, 2002.
He is currently working as Associate Professor in the
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Vallurupalli
Nageswara Rao Vignana Jyothi Institute of Engineering & Technology (VNR
VJIET), Hyderabad. He is a life member of ISTE. He has published 01 paper
in International Journal and 20 papers in National/International Conferences.
His current research interests are Nonconventional Manufacturing, Additive
Manufacturing and Robotics. (E-mail: shivrajyeole@vnrvjiet.in)