Investigations on Roller-Based Filament Drives

The filament drive is a key part of the extrusion assembly Fused Filament Fabrication printer. This investigation examines maximum feed force and slip different driving rollers using made polylactic-acid (PLA) on test stand. stand systematically varies main process parameters: velocity, pinch between rollers, force. has characteristic dependency combined with feed-velocity-dependency, which influenced by outer diameter roller. was found to increase linearly decreases increasing nearly constant for forces above 77 N—172 N, depending roller tooth geometry diameter. A model derived from contact mechanics used phenomenological modeling in relation velocity. An exponential ansatz provided good at liquefier can be estimate material flow future, thus leading increased precision parts magnitude systems.