Warpage control in thermoplastic ABS parts produced through material extrusion (MEX)-based fused deposition modeling (FDM)

• Published in: Rapid prototyping journal Vol. 30; no. 9; pp. 1822 - 1835
• Main Authors: Mittal, Yash G., Patil, Yogesh, Kamble, Pushkar Prakash, Gote, Gopal Dnyanba, Mehta, Avinash Kumar, Karunakaran, K.P.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bradford Emerald Publishing Limited 24-10-2024; Emerald Group Publishing Limited
• Subjects: ABS resins; Accuracy; Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene; Aspect ratio; Cooling; Deposition; Design improvements; Design of experiments; Design optimization; Extrusion; Filaments; Filler materials; Fused deposition modeling; Heat conductivity; Incompatibility; Parameters; Placement; Polymer melts; Rapid prototyping; Taguchi methods; Temperature; Temperature gradients; Thermal strain; Warpage; Warpage; Taguchi’s method; Thermoplastic ABS; Material extrusion (MEX); Orthogonal arrays
• ISSN: 1355-2546; 1355-2546; 1758-7670
• DOI: 10.1108/RPJ-01-2024-0023

Purpose
Additive manufacturing (AM) is a layer-by-layer technique that helps to create physical objects from a three-dimensional data set. Fused deposition modeling is a widely used material extrusion (MEX)-based AM technique that melts thermoplastic filaments and selectively deposits them over a build platform. Despite its simplicity and affordability, it suffers from various printing defects, with partial warping being a prevalent issue. Warpage is a physical deformation caused by thermal strain incompatibility that results in the bending of the printed part away from the build platform. This study aims to investigate the warpage characteristics of printed parts based on geometrical parameters and build orientations to reduce the warpage extent.
Design/methodology/approach
Cuboidal samples of thermoplastic acrylonitrile butadiene styrene ranging from 5 to 80 mm were printed using a commercial MEX system. A Taguchi method-based design of experiment trial was performed to optimize the placement and orientation of the part for minimal warpage.
Findings
It was found that a lower value of the “in-plane” aspect ratio and a more prominent part thickness are favorable for minimal warpage. The part should always be placed near the region with the highest temperature (least thermal gradient) to minimize the warpage.
Originality/value
A novel dimensionless parameter (Y) is proposed that should be set to a minimum value to achieve minimal warpage. The results of this study can help improve the design and part placement for the MEX technique, thus elevating the print quality.