Thermal history based prediction of interlayer bond strength in parts manufactured by material extrusion additive manufacturing

Material extrusion additive manufacturing, also known as fused filament fabrication (FFF), is currently one of the most widely used technologies. Although promising, technology prone to several defects including poor surface quality, low dimensional accuracy, and inadequate mechanical performance caused by weak bonds between successively deposited layers. Studies have shown that bonding filaments forms above material’s glass transition temperature which makes it essential study thermal history printing process. Since interlayer thermally driven, this has focused on development a regression model predict average strength part using printed layers process parameter settings. The parameters studied are deposition temperature, print speed, layer thickness. This relies finite element analysis (FEA) obtain part’s scanning electron microscopy (SEM) evaluate bond quality performing microstructure analysis. was assessed measuring widths weld times all in part. time an extruded stays when reheated adjacent layer. includes experimental validation developed predictive models estimate thin wall samples. Results show significantly influenced two key variables—the