Practical examining performance of the FDM 3D printed parts

Abstract Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) is a 3D-printing technique that is used for prototyping. Because of FDM application in various industries such as medical instruments and aerospace, the produced part surface quality, dimensional accuracy and mechanical properties are brought to attention in recent years. Optimizing the process parameters helps to enhance the mentioned products properties. In this paper, influential process parameters including print speed, infill percentage and nozzle temperature were selected to examine. That was concluded nozzle temperature and infill percentage increasing and print speed decreasing enhance dimensional accuracy. Density of the FDM part was affected mostly by infill percentage. Desirability method was used in order to conduct optimization. That was resulted nozzle temperature of 240°C, infill percentage of 50% and print speed of 54 mm/min are the optimum parameters. Besides, verification tests were carried out and maximum error of 7.5% were reported which shows the optimization confidence. In the following, part geometry influence on the final part surface roughness and dimensional accuracy was examined. The experiments demonstrated cube geometry has the least surface roughness and dimensional error that was due to independent motion of the axes. Also cone geometry has the highest dimensional error and surface roughness which was due to simultaneous axes motion and lateral face with lower than 90°.