Investigating the effect of motor micro-stepping on the geometric tolerances of Fused Filament Fabrication printed parts

Various process parameters affect the geometric tolerances, and the functionality of the fused filament fabrication (FFF) printed parts. Parameters like bed temperature, extruder temperature and their effect on tolerances are discussed extensively in the literature. However, micro-stepping of the extruder motor and component size, and their effect on geometric tolerances are not explored. This paper presents a Taguchi’s design of experiments (DOE) based study with input parameters as component size, micro-stepping of the extruder motor, material and STL settings. The output parameters are geometric tolerances, i.e. cylindricity, flatness, parallelism, and concentricity. The printed parts are measured for tolerances, ranked as per optimal parameter settings, and the study is concluded with future directions discussion.