In-Process Monitoring of Temperature Evolution during Fused Filament Fabrication: A Journey from Numerical to Experimental Approaches

Abstract

Fused filament fabrication (FFF), an additive manufacturing technique, unlocks alternative possibilities for the production of complex geometries. In this process, the layer-by-layer deposition mechanism and several heat sources make it a thermally driven process. As heat transfer plays a particular role and determines the temperature history of the merging filaments, the in-process monitoring of the temperature profile guarantees the optimization purposes and thus the improvement of interlayer adhesion. In this review, we document the role of heat transfer in bond formation. In addition, efforts have been carried out to evaluate the correlation of FFF parameters and heat transfer and their effect on part quality. The main objective of this review paper is to provide a comprehensive study on the in-process monitoring of the filament’s temperature profile by presenting and contributing a comparison through the literature.

Keywords

• process parameters
• FFF
• polylactic acid
• in-process monitoring