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. 2019 Dec 1;12(23):3982.
doi: 10.3390/ma12233982.

Build Time Estimation for Fused Filament Fabrication via Average Printing Speed

Gustavo Medina-Sanchez  1 , Rubén Dorado-Vicente  1 , Eloísa Torres-Jiménez  1 , Rafael López-García  1
Affiliations

Build Time Estimation for Fused Filament Fabrication via Average Printing Speed

Gustavo Medina-Sanchez et al. Materials (Basel). .

Abstract

Build time is a key issue in additive manufacturing, but even nowadays, its accurate estimation is challenging. This work proposes a build time estimation method for fused filament fabrication (FFF) based on an average printing speed model. It captures the printer kinematics by fitting printing speed measurements for different interpolation segment lengths and changes of direction along the printing path. Unlike analytical approaches, printer users do not need to know the printer kinematics parameters such as maximum speed and acceleration or how the printer movement is programmed to obtain an accurate estimation. To build the proposed model, few measurements are needed. Two approaches are proposed: a fitting procedure via linear and power approximations, and a Coons patch. The procedure was applied to three desktop FFF printers, and different infill patterns and part shapes were tested. The proposed method provides a robust and accurate estimation with a maximum relative error below 8.5%.

Keywords: 3D printing; efficiency; experimental model; printing time; rapid prototyping.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Examples: (a) Printing path with random segment lengths and direction changes, (b) printing paths for experimental speed estimation.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Example of experimental measurements of printing speed f. (a) Speed vs. s curves for different direction changes. (b) Speed vs. α for different segment lengths.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Coons patches (CP) printing speed surfaces for the tested printers (different colors are used to identify each patch of the CP spline surface). Dots represent the experimental measurements, CP surfaces fit black dots, and additional measurements (gray dots) are represented to visualize the goodness of the approximation.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Linear-power (LP) printing speed surfaces for the tested printers. Dots represent the experimental measurements, LP surfaces fit black dots, and gray dots are additional measurements to visualize the goodness of the approximation.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Estimation relative error for six random paths at different regions of the s-α domain.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Relative error of the proposed method, theoretical estimation and Pronterface prediction for the twelve printed samples presented in Table 3.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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