Investigation for surface finish improvement of FDM parts by vapor smoothing process

Fused deposition modelling (FDM) is one of the most widely used cost-effective additive manufacturing (AM) technique for modelling and prototyping of functional/non-functional parts subjected to different industrial applications. However, this technique still possesses substantial problems in-terms of poor surface finish and dimensional accuracy of the prototypes. In the present research work, an effort has been made to improve the surface finish of FDM based benchmarks through chemical (acetone) exposure by using vapor smoothing station (VSS). Experimental analysis has been carried out by using design of experiments (DOE) technique in-order to find out the effect of input factors on surface finish of the benchmarks. The results of the present study highlights the capability of the VSS for improving the surface finish of the FDM based parts to nano-level with negligible dimensional deviations.