Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) is one of most common ways of rapidly producing a part. Heated material (most commonly – plastic) is used to extrude it through a nozzle and deposit on a surface layer by layer until the part is fully produced. FDM has become one of the most popular in rapid production area due to its low cost, available materials and versatility.Due to fact that part is made layer by layer and each additional layer is deposited on top of a layer that is already a little below material melting point, part maintains different mechanical properties in various directions. These varying mechanical properties affect the part usability in practical applications. Critical point is tensile strength.The objective of this paper is to research optimal processing parameters for FDM prototyping to improve tensile strength. Several rapid prototype models (tensile test samples) with various geometry of longitudinal reinforcement channels were built. As reinforcing material, the epoxy resin was used, because it has higher tensile strength when solid and allows filling channels with various geometry. All made samples were tested for tensile strength. Experiment was carried out to confirm the effectiveness of this approach. From the results, it is found how different amount of epoxy resin affects part tensile strength.

Fused deposition modelling (FDM) is one of the most effective rapid prototyping (RP) techniques due to its low cost, available materials and versatility. In FDM, a part of material (usually plastic) is made by heating this material to the molten state, and from the melt it is extruded through a nozzle and deposited on a surface. In the article, an alternative RP method is considered for improvement of the mechanical properties of a rapid prototype. The authors propose an analytical solution which allows for achievement of this purpose via advanced technologies. The base materials applied in RP technology can be combined with liquid resin which solidifies after a definite time. This makes it possible to create a channel through the prototype and fill it with another material having better mechanical properties. The optimal channel sizes can be chosen in order to raise the strength of material parts.