Process Based Modeling of Energy Consumption for Multi-material FDM 3D Printing

Abstract Fused deposition modeling (FDM) is one most cost-effective 3D printing technique for forming complex 3D components based on thermoplastic materials. The energy consumption analysis is one criterion to determine the capacity and sustainability of the FDM. In this paper, the energy consumption of a dual- extruder FDM is studied by differentiating the whole multi-material printing process into independent operation modes, which characterize the thermal behaviors of the printing parameters. By investigating the execution instruction which describe the tooling plan of the FDM, the nozzle temperature distributions with different filament materials are measured and simulated. The energy consumption details can be accurately captured in our work and therefore we are able to predicate the power demand changes with different working processes of the multi-material FDM 3D printing. This work will be beneficial for optimization of 3D printer design and manufacturing sustainability in next.