Quality control for fused deposition modeling based additive manufacturing: Current research and future trends

Additive manufacturing (AM) is a novel way of manufacturing in the recent decade, and it has complexity free and customization advantages over subtractive manufacturing. Fused deposition modeling (FDM) belongs to AM, and it fabricates products using liquefied thermoplastic material. Products are manufactured layer-by-layer based on 3D computer aided designs (CAD). As a new technology, quality of outgoing products is the key aspect that people focus on. Engineering process control (EPC) and statistical process control (SPC) are two ways to guarantee and improve product quality. EPC has already been used in FDM to give feedback control of the process based on detected variations. However, very infrequent work has been done on SPC in FDM to reduce variation in manufacturing process, so that assignable causes can be detected when they occur. This paper summarizes current research in quality control for FDM, including process and quality parameters, measuring instruments, and current EPC and SPC methods. Future trends in this research area are discussed finally.