Industrial Case Study of FDM Additive Manufacturing (PLA/ASA) versus CNC Machining of POM for Plug Retention Components

Mechanical plug retention components are essential in industrial electrical connector testing, ensuring alignment and repeatability. This study evaluates a material–process substitution, comparing additively manufactured components produced by FDM in PLA and ASA with CNC machined POM components for five geometries used at PIBRA. The comparison considers production time, cost, dimensional accuracy, material consumption, material waste, functional performance, and human resource requirements. Results show that additive manufacturing reduces material consumption by 74%, material waste by 97%, and cost by 5%, while increasing production time by 186%. FDM parts demonstrated adequate qualitative fitting performance for the evaluated low-volume testing application. Overall, additive manufacturing is a viable solution for low-volume production, offering advantages in material efficiency and flexibility despite longer production times.