fdm prototyping is an essential part of the design process. It exposes and facilitates the elimination of design errors early in the product development stage and before any significant investment is made. fdm prototyping (RP), physical parts are fabricated layer by layer. It uses additive manufacturing processes, which do not require any tools or set-ups compared to the subtractive techniques used in the traditional machining operation and thus reduces the prototype development time.

fdm prototyping article

The main RP source at IIT Kanpur is a Fused Deposition Modeling system (FDM) RP system at Computer Aided Design Lab (CAD Lab) a central facility of the institution. The system is Stratasys FDM 1650, equipped for prototyping with ABS plastic. Another RP machine in the lab is a Solid Ground Curing (SGC) system. The system is Cubital Solider 5600 and is an industry class machine. Stratasys Facility Fused Deposition Modeling or FDM is a process which deposits a continuous filament of a thermoplastic polymer through a resistively heated nozzle, the material is delivered as a wire in to the extrusion head and heated to slightly above its flow point, so that it solidifies relatively quickly after it exits the nozzle. Specifications. Cubital Facility In this process what is known as SGC or Solid Ground Curing, an entire cross-section is imaged in a single operation using photo mask. Some of the advantages of this process (from manufacturers catalogue) are as follows : Build time is independent of the number of slots being made at a time. Therefore, it can act as a production machine. No external support structure is required. Accuracy of the fdm prototyping part is good. No warping or curling of the part takes place. Large variety of photopolymers can be used for building the fdm prototyping parts.