Experimental studies on mechanical properties of metal fused filament fabricated SS316L

Abstract

Fused Filament Fabrication is a simple and commercially popular additive manufacturing (AM) technique for developing high-accuracy polymer-based materials. In this experiment, a retrofit type of setup was developed in order to manufacture Stainless Steel 316L based products. The current study is focused on the encapsulation of stainless steel with polylactic acid in order to prepare the filament for 3D printing. The effects of major factors such as layer thickness, infill density, and extruder temperature on density, surface roughness, micro-hardness, and material/filament consumption have been studied. The experiment was designed using the Box Behnken Design approach for 15 specimens with varying conditions. The results showed that a maximum relative density of 97% was achieved with a layer thickness of 0.2 mm, an extruder temperature of 215°C, and an infill density of 100%. Furthermore, the optimized sample infill density has had a significant impact on the hardness and surface roughness.