Effect of printing parameters on the properties and quality of 3D-printed 316L SS–polymer composite parts in metal fused filament fabrication: A one-factor-at-a-time approach

Abstract

Metal fused filament fabrication (MFFF) is an emerging additive manufacturing process to fabricate metal components by extruding metal–polymer composite filaments to form green parts, followed by debinding and sintering. Part quality is affected throughout the shaping, debinding, and sintering stages of MFFF, with porosity, surface roughness, and dimensional inaccuracy remaining the primary challenges. This study focuses on optimizing green part fabrication, a relatively less explored stage than sintering. The effects of print temperature (PT), print speed (PS), and fan speed (FS) on the dimensional accuracy, density, and surface quality of 316L stainless steel green parts were studied using a one-factor-at-a-time approach and range analysis. Dimensional accuracies in the x and y directions were significantly affected by PT, FS, and PS in descending order. However, in the z direction, FS, PT, and PS significantly affected the accuracy in descending order. Density was significantly influenced by PT, followed by FS and PS. FS, PS, and PT influenced surface roughness on the top face, while on the side face, PT, FS, and PS influenced in descending order. Higher PT and PS reduced dimensional accuracy and overall part quality while increasing density and surface roughness due to excessive material fluidity and unstable extrusion. FS improved accuracy by enhancing layer cooling. However, it resulted in lower density due to inadequate inter-layer fusion.