The Impact of Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) Printing Profiles on 17-4 PH Green and Sintered Parts

The aim of this research is to characterize parts from innovative hybrid printing method for obtaining dense metal components using affordable fused filament fabrication (FFF). The introduction of Desktop Metal technology in 2015 really attracts an increase in industrial interest in the FFF printing of highly metal-filled filament. Even though FFF is a well-known process, there are not many studies on how to optimize the printing parameters for these feedstocks. The effects of the printing setting on producing high-quality green parts and enhancing the mechanical properties of the finished 17-4 PH metallic parts are investigated in this work. The influence of four printing profiles provided by a BASF plugin for Ultimaker Cura slicing software, obtained by combining different printing parameters is investigated. The ASTM E8 tensile test is used to determine the mechanical characteristics of the finished metal components. To identify differences in morphology, optical and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) observations are made on both sections of green and sintered samples. The effect of printing parameters on shrinkage and density are also taken into consideration. The findings demonstrate the importance of optimizing the printing of the green parts in order to produce full metal components that are both strong and dense.