The Development of Guidelines for Optimal 3D Printing Parameters for Specialty Filaments

Abstract:

With recent advances in material science in the world of additive manufacturing or 3D printing many new functional filaments are readily available for use in industry. Working with this wide range of materials will present numerous challenges as each material will require different print settings. Dialing in these print settings is often a lengthy process. Utilizing a 3D printed test object scaled to a standard size relevant to the intended and planned prints, an adjustment factor can be calculated to offset for shrinkage or expansion of the part due to material properties or machine error. By experimentally measuring the dimensional error across features of the test print, quality of a 3D printing filament can be determined and the factors that affect dimensional error can be interpreted. In this study a range of filaments were compared, ranging from common hobby grade filaments such as ABS and PETG to high strength composites reinforced by nylon or carbon fiber. With the data collected consistent trends in dimensional error relating to feature size were found across certain filaments suggesting material properties in conjunction with machine tuning and print settings play a significant and predictable role in the trends of dimensional error across prints.