VERIFICATION OF FEED RATE EFFECTS ON FILAMENT EXTRUSION FOR FREEFORM FABRICATION

Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) machine are usually used an extrusion method of plastic based material in layered manufacturing process. This study was focused on the effects of feed rate on filament flow in extrusion process. For the first step, testing jig was built to ease the extrusion process is carried out. Testing jig was designed using the FDM extruder which have made a major component in this study. Three types of  filament was selected in the experimental such as Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS), High Impact Polystyrene (HIPS), and (ABS + Copper) by 3mm diameter size of filament. From the results of the filament extrusion was conducted, feed rate plays an important role for the smooth in extrusion process. Based on the results obtained, it was found that, the feed rate applied to drive the filament into the extruder head should be between 5 mm/s to 15 mm/s approximately.  Meanwhile, the high temperature was affected on the filament extrusion flow through the different nozzle diameter of 0.4 mm and 0.6 mm in size. Therefore, the temperature range of ABS and HIPS in extrusion process was 230°C until 250°C and for ABS + Copper at 240°C to 270°C respectively.