Experimental investigation of creep deformation of part processed by fused deposition modeling using definitive screening design

Fused deposition modeling (FDM) is shown to be a future-oriented technology. In this study, short-term creep deformation of PC-ABS parts created by FDM under different fabrication conditions was investigated using a recently innovative class of experimental design − definitive screening design (DSD) − along with graphical analysis. Short-term creep experiments were conducted at prescribed combinations of FDM operating conditions, namely layer thickness, air gap, raster angle, build orientation, road width and number of contours, as per DSD matrix. The results have shown that layer thickness, number of contours, raster angle and build orientation have a major effect on the creep rate of the parts. However, road width and air gap have least impact on the creep rate of FDM processed prototypes.