An Adaptive Strategy in Printing PETG with Fused Filament Fabrication

In fused deposition additive manufacturing, a single set of printing parameters is commonly employed for nearly the entire process, which is not optimised with respect to the part performance or production efficiency. This research establishes a quantitative approach to optimise the manufacturing process with an adaptive printing strategy for polyethylene terephthalate glycol (PETG). A reheating temperature criterion was first established, which stated that the difference between a characteristic reheating temperature T cr and the material’s glass transition temperature T g should not exceed a critical threshold defined with the volume flow rate Q v [cm 3 /h] such that T cr –T g ≤ 35.48 ln Q v . This threshold temperature allowed local tuning of the travelling speed and fan speed based on an existing temperature model of the process. The strategy was tested during printing a pyramid structure, and the printed part with adaptive parameters showed significant improvement in both surface quality and production efficiency in terms of manufacturing time.