Authors: Inês Lemos, Henrique A. Almeida & Mário S. Correia

FDM technology is an additive manufacturing process that produces the model with deposition of polymer materials layer by layer. The STL files, generated through a CAD model of the component, are manipulated by software in order to define the best conditions for the printing of the desired model as well as to define the need to produce support structures. It is relevant to establish design guidelines to achieve a better result. Thus, the focus of this work is to evaluate the ability to build sloping walls in FDM and to verify the need of the existence of support structures in a set of models defined with a specific geometry. The work consisted of producing inverted hollow cone trunks through the FDM process in different equipment’s. In this way it was possible to evaluate the build geometry, the thickness differences of deposited material and to conclude the limit of sloping walls in which it is possible to produce the component without support structures within the defined parameters.

Inês Lemos^{1 |} Henrique A. Almeida^1,2 | Mário S. Correia^1,3
1 ESTG, Instituto Politécnico de Leiria, Portugal
2 CIIC, Instituto Politécnico de Leiria, Portugal
3 CEMMPRE, Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal