Proceedings of the XMO Industrial Seminar 2026: Excellence in Manufacturing and Operations
Keywords
Fused Filament Fabrication; Toolpath Optimization; Additive Manufactruing; Mechanical Characterization
Tracks
CONVERGENT MANUFACTURING
DOI
10.5703/1288284318677
Abstract
This paper investigates the mechanical performance of fused filament fabricated (FFF) thin-walled structures with stress-oriented toolpath planning. Specifically, the failure of 3D printed thin walls via stress-oriented toolpath planning were experimentally characterized under concentrated compressive load. The thin wall structure was generated using the dense infill toolpath generation algorithm via an improved Depth-First Search (DFS) framework proposed in our previous work [1]. With the algorithm, the toolpaths were planned according to the principal stress direction, which helped improve compressive strength, improving buckling resistance. Stress-oriented toolpath that aligned along the principal stress direction (S1) was proposed to fabricate the thin wall. The S1 toolpath was compared with conventional toolpaths that were uniformly in 0° and 90° raster angles. Thin walls with thickness of 1.2 mm and 1.8 mm were tested. The critical buckling load of thin walls with S1 toolpath were improved by at least 15.0% compared to the thin walls with uniform raster angles, while the stiffness was at most 39.6% lower than the thin walls with unidirectional infill. The maximum load of the thin walls with the same toolpath was proportional to the thickness (P_cr ∝ t^3), while stiffness was mainly dependent on the toolpath. The findings illustrate the effectiveness of the stress-based toolpath in improving load-carrying capacity in FFF thin wall structure, while stiffness is influenced by toolpath dependent behavior and failure is governed by buckling.
Experimental Study Of Mechanical Performance Of Fused Filament Fabricated Thin Walls Via Stress-Oriented Toolpath Planning Under Concentrated Compressive Load
This paper investigates the mechanical performance of fused filament fabricated (FFF) thin-walled structures with stress-oriented toolpath planning. Specifically, the failure of 3D printed thin walls via stress-oriented toolpath planning were experimentally characterized under concentrated compressive load. The thin wall structure was generated using the dense infill toolpath generation algorithm via an improved Depth-First Search (DFS) framework proposed in our previous work [1]. With the algorithm, the toolpaths were planned according to the principal stress direction, which helped improve compressive strength, improving buckling resistance. Stress-oriented toolpath that aligned along the principal stress direction (S1) was proposed to fabricate the thin wall. The S1 toolpath was compared with conventional toolpaths that were uniformly in 0° and 90° raster angles. Thin walls with thickness of 1.2 mm and 1.8 mm were tested. The critical buckling load of thin walls with S1 toolpath were improved by at least 15.0% compared to the thin walls with uniform raster angles, while the stiffness was at most 39.6% lower than the thin walls with unidirectional infill. The maximum load of the thin walls with the same toolpath was proportional to the thickness (P_cr ∝ t^3), while stiffness was mainly dependent on the toolpath. The findings illustrate the effectiveness of the stress-based toolpath in improving load-carrying capacity in FFF thin wall structure, while stiffness is influenced by toolpath dependent behavior and failure is governed by buckling.