Experimental Study on Metal Parts under Variable 3D Printing and Sintering Orientations Using Bronze/PLA Hybrid Filament Coupled with Fused Filament Fabrication

Producing metal parts from Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) 3D printing coupled with a metal/polymer hybrid filament, considering the advantages of high-performance and low cost, has generated considerable research interest recently. This paper addresses the studied relationship between variable printing/sintering directions and the properties of the sintered metal parts. It was shown that the printing directions played a significant role in determining the properties of final products, such as shrinkage, tensile stress, and porosity. The shrinkage in the layer direction because of anisotropic behavior is more minor than in the other dimensions. The microstructural analysis indicated that the printing directions had influenced the form and position of porosity on the produced metal parts. Most porosities occurred on the surfaces printed parallel to the printing bed. Furthermore, the sintering orientations had no possible benefits for dimension shrinkage, weight shrinkage, density, and porosity position of produced metal parts. However, the sintering direction “upright” resulted in parting lines inside the sintered tensile samples and made them fragile. The best printing-sintering combination was “on-edge-flat”.