Title: Power consumption investigation for fused filament fabricated specimen

Authors: Hunter James Hinshaw; Shane Terry; Ismail Fidan

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, Tennessee Technological University, Cookeville, TN 38505, USA ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, Tennessee Technological University, Cookeville, TN 38505, USA ' Department of Manufacturing and Engineering Technology, College of Engineering, Tennessee Technological University, Cookeville, TN 38505, USA

Abstract: This paper describes a research project comparing various settings of current 3D printers and the effect on part quality and machine efficiency. The goal of this research is to determine the most appropriate parameters with which to 3D print any component. The chosen settings should provide a final product of quality while being efficient within three categories: print completion time, part weight, and Kilowatt-per-hour consumption. The purpose being to establish a set of parameters that will provide the sought-after efficiency on any fused filament fabrication (FFF) 3D printer, in any application, for any production part. These parameters could prove to benefit additive manufacturing (AM), saving time, material, and electrical energy cost. This study provides results for the most efficient settings across three parameters: layer height, infill ratio, and shell count. Through testing, given the experimental set-up and parameters, 0.3 mm, 3 shells, 25% infill was the most efficient array of settings in this application.

Keywords: additive manufacturing; 3D printing; efficiency; electrical; case study; slicing; print profiles.

DOI: 10.1504/IJRAPIDM.2020.107738

International Journal of Rapid Manufacturing, 2020 Vol.9 No.2/3, pp.268 - 279

Received: 28 Nov 2019
Accepted: 26 Dec 2019

Published online: 11 Jun 2020 *

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