Measurement, characterisation and influence of the air temperature above the build plate in fused filament fabrication

Additive Manufacturing Letters

Eleonora Ferraris¹  Jonas Neeckx²  Jie Zhang²  Brecht Van Hooreweder² 

[1] Corresponding author at: KU Leuven Campus De Nayer, Jan Pieter de Nayerlaan 5, Sint-Katelijne-Waver 2860, Belgium.;Department of Mechanical Engineering, KU Leuven, Leuven 3000, Belgium;

关键词: Air temperature;    Fused filament fabrication (FFF);    Heat transfer;    Horizontal plate;    Natural convection;   

DOI  :  

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Heated build plates are common yet essential components in many additive manufacturing (AM) machines. However, their influence on the air temperature above and the subsequent impact on the AM process are barely discussed. This article proposes a simple model for the air temperature above the plate Ta(z), which exponentially decays from the plate temperature to the far environment temperature by a characteristic dimension lc in the range of 2–9 mm. The model has been empirically validated for three fused filament fabrication (FFF) machines, including open and closed systems, small and large build chambers. Temperature simulations in printed parts suggest that Ta(z) plays a critical role when printing at low layer thicknesses, such as 300 µm. Besides, adding an enclosure to FFF machines can significantly raise the far environment temperature inside the chamber, delaying the part cooling. However, its effect is noticeable for the portion above 10 mm only.

【 授权许可】

Unknown