Deposition Strategies and Resulting Part Stiffnesses in Fused Deposition Modeling

In the Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) process, the choice of deposition strategy plays an important role. In this paper, the effects of different deposition paths on this deposition based LM process are investigated. Some variations on the current deposition strategies are also proposed. The stiffness of parts manufactured by the different strategies is experimentally determined. It is then compared with an analytical model developed using laminate analysis. A good conformance of the laminate model to the experimental results suggests that the laminate model can be used as a design aide to help the designer tailor the deposition strategy to the stiffness requirements.