Modelling material behavior for additively manufactured metals and polymers produced by fused filament fabrication

Abstract

Additive Manufacturing (AM) has several applications across diverse industries, such as automotive, aerospace, and medical sectors. Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) stands out as a prominent AM technique that builds the product layer by layer. Metal Fused Filament Fabrication (MFFF) employs a filament composed of metal powder and a polymer binder. The MFFF process involves three key stages: printing, debinding, and sintering. Despite its numerous benefits, MFFF confronts particular challenges during printing and sintering. Additionally, the layer-wise nature of the FFF process leads to anisotropic mechanical characteristics in printed parts. Consequently, this study focuses on investigating the influence of various process parameters on the quality and mechanical properties of the final components, with an emphasis on predicting the yield and ultimate tensile strength of FFF parts. To achieve this, a Finite Element Model (FEM) was developed, incorporating an anisotropic stiffness matrix with material constants obtained through experimental methods.